Without wanting to put the kiss of death on Queen’s Park… Owen Coyle certainly knows his way around play-offs.
As a player and manager, the 56-year-old has an impressive record in these situations, not least considering their reputation for being a lottery is right up with the penalty shoot-out. The only time they haven’t worked out for Coyle thus far was halfway around the world in India, where he lost with Chennaiyin and Jamshedpur, albeit the latter came after his team had already been crowned champions in the regular season.
Closer to home, he has been victorious with Bolton, Dundee United and Burnley already. Tonight, his next task will be to lead Queen’s on a path to the Premiership, easier said than done after the title decider heartbreak they endured at Ochilview on Friday. A 5-3 defeat to Dundee, one of the matches of the season anywhere in football, dropped the Spiders to third in the final Championship table, which brutally dictates that despite being just 90 minutes from the top-flight a few days ago, they must now navigate a further six matches.
It is a gruelling schedule, starting away at Partick Thistle this evening, but one Coyle feels his team remain more than capable of overcoming.
“It’s the biggest challenge,” he said. “You’re coming off a chance to be champions and with all due to respect to Ayr and Partick, they’re ecstatic whereas we’re coming off a disappointment so the biggest challenge will be making sure we’re ready mentally. But if someone had said at the start of the season you’re going to still have a chance to get in the Premiership we’d have been doing somersaults.
“We know everything’s there if we get there: we’ve beaten Thistle three times out of four, and Ayr we’ve beaten and drawn in the last two games so everything’s there for us. We need to perform with the ball but we can’t defend the way we did on Friday and expect to be champions of the league.
“We’ve shown we can create chances and we’re pleasing on the eye. We let a chance slip on Friday, now we have to be the best version of ourselves.”
It is 14 years to the day since Coyle’s Burnley defeated reading in the English Championship play-off semi-final first leg; a Graham Alexander penalty proving decisive. A 2-0 win in the return followed before the Clarets then beat Sheffield United in the final at Wembley to return to the top tier for the first time in 33 years. Coyle’s current club, mind you, see that three decade absence and raise you 64 years without playing at the top level of Scottish football. Considering how his players took a real sucker-punch on Friday night, the manager says he’ll happily accept a good omen.
“If that works I’ll take it,” he smiled. “Whatever happens, we have to earn it. You get the occasional punch in the teeth, the important thing is reacting to it. You either feel sorry for yourself or you try and change that, and we want to see it through.
“I’ve been very lucky in football, both as a player and a manager. I won play-offs north and south of the border in both capacities, so we know how it is to win.
“We did that last year. In the play-offs this year, we’re probably in the same situation as last year in terms of being the underdogs because of what happened on Friday night.
“Last season, we were 28 points behind Cove and it probably shows you how far the club has come – Cove have now lost their place and we’re at the top end fighting to get into the Premiership.
“It’s unbelievable progress we’ve made as a club, and without having spent any more money – it’s the same budget as last year. Of course, you pass on little bits of experience you’ve picked up, but the biggest thing is when the players cross the white line, they have to deliver on it.
“We are more than capable of doing that. We’ll probably look to freshen up a little because there was huge emotion, physicality and certainly mentality involved in Friday night. Of course, we have to get some fresh legs in the team and then make sure we’re right in that tie with Friday night to come at our home from home.”
Queen’s Park may just look to draw on finding themselves in the thick of Dundee’s celebrations last week, in the sense they still have a golden chance to kickstart a party of their own over the coming weeks.
As Dark Blues fans flooded the pitch at Ochilview – where Friday’s second leg with the Jags is still set to take place, despite rumours to the contrary – Coyle was shepherded through the masses by Dundee manager Gary Bowyer. It was a gesture appreciated by the Spiders manager, although he joked his Gorbals roots would’ve seen him through any sticky encounter, regardless.
“I was fine,” he insisted. “Gary is a friend of mine from down the road. I have been on both sides of that scenario before and I said to him ‘go and enjoy yourself, you’ve earned it’. He said ‘no, you’d do it for me’.
“I said ‘yeah, but with all due respect I’m from the Gorbals - I don’t need a chaperone to get through this ruck of bodies! We had a wee laugh. There were a few characters coming up and doing this or that. It’s the emotion and good luck to Dundee.
“The funny thing was when I got to the other side there were about 10 police there and then one of them decided to escort me the last couple of yards!”
