Ton had to settle for a share of the spoils in Dumfries on Saturday after they were twice pegged back by James Fowler’s Doonhamers.

Despite the fact a draw was considered a reasonable outcome on the face of it, there was a sense that they were unfortunate not to have claimed all three.

And the Ton boss explained there were mixed emotions at full-time after coming so tantalisingly close to walking away with the win.

He told the Tele: “To come down here and be … not bitterly disappointed, but slightly disappointed at going up the road with a point is not a bad thing. We were probably a wee bit unlucky not to take more from the game. We obviously got a bit of luck to start with, with the own goal but then their goals are a deflection and an own goal from us.

“You can look at the two aspects of football: one was the deflection for them and the ball breaks for a goal right on half-time. We take centre and the whistle blows.

“Then in the dying seconds Stef [McCluskey] has hit the inside of the post. It looked as if it was in, then the whistle blows for full-time. So we could maybe have nicked it.

“We don’t like to be crying too much about hard luck stories, but those were two incidents that showed the fractions that can make the difference in a football match.

“But overall I’m not too disappointed with the point. If you’d said to me before [that we would] come down to Queens and get a point I wouldn’t have been too disappointed.” Queens’ second goal came via a free-kick, and Duffy was of the opinion defender Ricki Lamie was wrongly penalised.

He explained: “I don’t think it was a free-kick; I think he won the ball — chased the boy back and toe poked it — and his momentum carried him into the player and he goes down. These are the issues we hear contested every week in football: if you win the ball how do you stop your momentum? It’s impossible.

“If you’re making a move forward to win the ball and you win it, you can’t all of a sudden just put the brakes on. So, yeah, we were a wee bit disappointed with the free-kick, but it was a difficult delivery: flat and whipped in at pace.

“Luca [Gasparotto] has gone with the opponent and it’s just come off his head and gone in. These things happen.” Although there were contrasting feelings when it came to the outcome, the Ton boss was categorical in his praise of his players and their performance. He added: “The effort the players put in was terrific, particularly in the first half. I thought we had great energy about us.

“They [Queens] had a lot of possession in front of us, but we looked the threat. Gats had about one save from 20 yards from Gary [Oliver]. That was about it really — we defended really well. We lost a goal right on half-time and that was disappointing. We had to really dig in for that 20 to 25-minute spell at the start of the second half, kind of regroup a little bit.

“I’ve said it before, Queen of the South are a terrific side and play some really good football. I thought they linked up well and made it difficult for us. In the latter stages the game could’ve went either way. Both of us were looking to get the win. Neither team settled for the draw: Queens were trying to win it, we were trying to win it.

“We are competing very well in this division and we have to keep doing that. The players are working hard, giving everything.

“They’re shattered in there and that’s the way we want them to be: we want them to be coming off the field having given it everything they’ve got. And they’re doing that.”