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Manager Paul Hartley and striker Rory McAllister spoke to the media after our 1-0 defeat by Queen of the South at Balmoral Stadium in the semi-finals of the SPFL Trust Trophy.

The Doonhamers secured their place in the final when Aiden Fitzpatrick scored in the first minute and they they then defended resolutely for the remainder of the tie.

Paul said: “Nobody likes losing, but I’m proud of my players.

“It was a big opportunity missed, but I thought we were absolutely terrific.

“Some of our play was outstanding, we just didn’t have that cutting edge, a little bit of calmness and composure in front of goal.

“We certainly created enough opportunities and some of our play was magnificent at times.

“People could see that we are a right good team, we just didn’t take our chances when we had them.

“We got caught cold after the first minute, but we controlled and dominated the game after that.

“I know Kyle (Gourlay) had a few good saves too, but we were a wee bit open by that time because we were having to chase the game.

“I’m really disappointed for the players that they didn’t make it to the final.

“But you suffer that in life and in football, there are times when it just doesn’t go for you.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down and go again because we have nine huge league games left now.

“We have enough good characters in there that can do that.

“They will have been disappointed on the night and rightly so.

“But we move on now and keep our focus on the challenge ahead of us in the league.”

Rory said: “It’s a frustrating defeat to take because it feels like a huge opportunity missed by us.

“To put so much into the game and not get anything out of it is very hard to take.

“You’ve got to give them a bit of credit, they put their bodies on the line.

“They also worked hard, but they got the rub of the green as well.

“They got all the luck, like when the ball was spinning it would go to them or if a shot was blocked it would fall to their player instead of one of us.

“If we had been six ahead at half-time they couldn’t have argued, that’s how much on top we were.

“We weren’t though and no matter how hard we worked to get the goal we needed they held out, which as I said was so frustrating for us.”

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