CLASSICAL scholars won't need Gulliver to tell them the significance of the Ides of March.

But although it's a couple of thousand years since old Julius copped his whack on this very day at the hands of a bunch of dastardly conspirators, the fates seem to be lining up to conspire against QP at the moment.

Firstly there was the monsoon that washed out last Saturday's game. It denied us the chance to meet the Blue Brazil at their lowest ebb, in the middle of an injury crisis, when victory would have put clear blue water between us.

Then the fixtures computer conspires to give them two games in a row against an almost-doomed Berwick, while sending us to in-form Brechin. That lets Cowden sneak ahead of us.
Then one of the real success stories of our season, Steve Canning picks up a training-ground injury and misses today's trip. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Big D is also ruled out with an injury at the back of his knee.

If Gardner Speirs was under any illusions as to the size of the task facing him, he's learning fast.

The absence of Canning, along with regular left-back Mick Dunlop, and the other stand-by, Stuart McGrady, left the boss with a real selection dilemma.

He solved it by playing Martin Ure at left back, with Richard Sinclair coming in to replace Agostini.

To be honest, it wasn't a line-up to inspire confidence of a rare away victory at Glebe Park, but as has happened so often before, the Queen's players took great delight in forcing an awful lot of fixed odds coupons to be ripped up.

As might have been expected, Brechin settled quicker and Michael Paton had a couple of chances to put them ahead in the opening minutes.

But the best chance fell to Queen's, and it was a move of beauty.

Kettlewell ran from the middle of the park, played a nice one-two with Cairney, and burst through on goal. His finish, with the outside of his right foot, left Nelson helpless, but sadly hit the underside of the bar and rebounded to safety.

Sinclair was obviously keen to make the most of his opportunity, and produced a great block on King minutes later to keep us on level terms.

That was it as far as goalmouth action for the next 15 minutes or so. On 27, Cairney wriggled clear and rolled a lovely ball across the six-yard box. Sadly, there were no takers for Queen's.

It took another 10 minutes for the breakthrough to arrive, and it was Queen's who found it.

A lightning break saw Ure feed Ferry, who fed Trouten, and he rolled an open invitation into the Brechin box. This one was too good to turn down, and Dunn didn't, poking it past the helpless Nelson into the net.

We made it through to the interval with our noses in front, but nobody was taking anything for granted. Brechin were shooting down the slope, and had at least 10 players more than 6ft tall. It was going to be a fraught 45 minutes.

It started off nervously, with Smith shooting wide after 48 minutes, and it continued that way for quite some time.

The home side brought on Diack for Jancyzk on the hour, and the aerial onslaught continued.

It truly was a tale of two styles, with Brechin battering the ball down the slope, and Queen's trying to play their way back up it.

We nearly gave ourselves a bit of breathing space on the hour when Cairney and Trouten broke, but Nelson denied us the goal that would have calmed the nerves.

We made our first change after 67 when goal hero Dunn was replaced by Paul Ronald..

Brechin meanwhile threw on Calum Smith and Adam Nelson as they sought an equaliser.

It didn't come, partly because they didn't have the guile to get past the QP midfield, and partly because when they did our back four was in no mood to be beaten.

Reilly was calmness personified, while Sinclair provided back-up whenever called on, and Ure more than justified his place.

The clock was passing far too slowly for Gulliver's liking, but Cairney and Trouten were doing their best to keep possession, and let us breathe more easily.

Three minutes from time, Cairney took the ball for a walk into the corner. but as the wee midfielder fought to keep control of the ball, he held off the challenge of the giant Walker.

The linesman, three feet away, saw nothing amiss, but referee Nicholls, from much further away, reckoned it was a foul.

You all know Gulliver would never criticise an official, but there were many in the ground who found the decision hard to comprehend, and found the booking of Cairney for dissent when he knocked the ball away even harder to take.

We were now within touching distance of a priceless victory, but we needed one more minute of defensive magic before the whistle put us out of our misery.

There were just 90 seconds left to play when the home side humped another ball into the box. Zander made his first mistake of the afternoon as he came to collect, but never got near the ball. Smith nodded it past him towards the empty net, but out of nowhere, Paul Paton appeared to divert the ball for a corner.

It was a dramatic intervention; a dramatic finale, and a dramatic way to secure a victory that could go a long way to securing our place in this division next season.

Every one of the players deserves the greatest credit for their efforts, and their courage.

The news that Berwick had beaten Cowdenbeath made it even more important.

We now travel to Central Park on Tuesday, knowing that victory could put us in a relatively comfortable position.

Queen's generally don't do comfortable. Would this not be a lovely time to break the habits of a lifetime and let us all relax a bit?

We deserve to survive; we have the skills to survive, and with a fair share of the breaks, we will survive ... but then again, when was football ever fair?

Keep the faith, and we'll see you in Fife on Tuesday.