Kelty Hearts welcome Queen of the South to New Central Park for the final time this season.  The Maroon Machine will hope to build momentum after last week’s vital 2-0 away win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Last Saturday’s win lifted Kelty to sixth in the table and provided some important distance to ninth place.  Now seven points clear, a win will mathematically confirm our place in next season’s League One.

Queen of the South are competing for a promotion play-off spot, currently sitting in fourth place.  A win for the Doonhamers could see them leapfrog Stenhousemuir into third place as we approach the crunch time of the campaign.

Kelty Hearts have been a thorn in the sides of Queen of the South historically, the Dumfries side only winning once in the league.  This season, Kelty have won all three meetings including a 5-1 rout at Palmerston.  

Peter Murphy’s side have been in good form and are unbeaten in their last five.  Most recently, goals from Adam Brooks and Jordan Allan saw out a 2-1 home win against Montrose.  For Kelty, the win last week halted a run of six without a victory.

Speaking to Kelty Hearts TV, interim boss Tam O’Ware said “we want to build on what we’ve done.  There’s no point only doing it for one game, we want to go on a run of games where we can compete in this league.”

Written by: Jamie Szmitz

Photography: Kevin Marshall (@KayemPhoto)