Jimmy Nicholl says his Cowdenbeath side must find self-belief if they are to have any hope of escaping the play-offs after slumping to their latest defeat at a sunny Palmerston Park.
“We’re lacking a bit of firepower up front, and when that’s the case you just can’t concede goals the way we did,” sighed the bemused boss at the end.
The opening spell was relatively evenly contested, but Queens began to assert authority quickly, and Paul Burns came close with a volley when Cowdenbeath failed to clear.
At the other end, Zander Clark made a fine save at full stretch to deny Jamie Stevenson from a free kick.
Queens took the lead on the quarter-hour mark as Chris Higgins pounced on a Chris Mitchell corner at the front post, making no mistake from close range with Cowdenbeath wondering how he had found the space in a crowded penalty area.
Queens drove forward and Bob McHugh’s looping shot from the edge of the box dipped just over the crossbar before Iain Russell also came close, scooping his shot over the bar as the visitors struggled to clear a corner.
As pressure mounted the lead was doubled 12 minutes before the break when Gavin Reilly capitalised on a sloppy back-header from Dean Brett, rounding Seb Usai to slot home.
The 65 or so travelling fans could see the writing was on the wall, with the added anguish that their team had conceded two goals of their own making.
After the break, there were hints Cowdenbeath could recover.
The half-time substitute Jordan Morton fired just wide after two minutes on the pitch.
The relief was momentary, as Queens continued to attack. Russell had a gilt-edged change to wrap up the points, but failed to connect properly four yards out and Usai smothered well at point blank range.
Finally, Cowdenbeath found their defensive grit as they stopped Queens adding to the tally.
Morton made a great block on the line to deny Andy Dowie, and Usai made a superb stop from Queens’ substitute Derek Lyle.
There was a consolation when Sammy Stewart snuck into the Queens box in the final minute to slip the ball into the net.
But it was too little, too late for the Blue Brazil.
“It’s going to be very, very difficult to get ourselves out of this, but I believe there are still enough points available that we can do,” added Nicholl whose side face a crunch-clash with bottom-of-the-table Morton on Tuesday.
“We just have to find belief from somewhere before Tuesday night. If we go out with that lack of belief we might as well say goodnight which is certainly not the way I am feeling.”
Doonhamers boss Jim McIntyre said: “We could have scored five or six, but we were a bit wasteful in front of goal.”