Off form Longworth aims to stop the rot

Nov 21 2012 by Paul Thomson, East Kilbride News

Queen’s Park striker Jamie Longworth has held his hands up and admitted: “I’m not playing well enough to be in the team.”

The 25-year-old, from Calderwood, was dropped on Saturday for the Spiders’ 1-1 draw away to Montrose off the back of a four game run without a league win.

Saturday’s result stretched that to five and Longworth, who was Queen’s Park’s player of the year last season, was an unused substitute as his side came from behind to draw.

Longworth hasn’t scored in the last seven games and the club’s honest star striker backed manager Gardner Spiers’ decision to leave him out of the side.

Longworth, who has scored four goals in 10 league games this season, told the News: “To be honest I’ve not being playing great lately and I don’t think I’ve been playing well enough to be in the team.

“It’s a dip in form for me and I’m not doing as well as I was this time last season, so it’s only fair that the guys who are doing really well in training get their chance to show what they can do.

“Obviously, it’s really disappointing not to play but the team performance is the most important thing and it was a good result for us to go to Montrose – who are on a good run – and take a point.

“We’ve fallen away a wee bit from being top of the league early in the season to fourth, so hopefully we can change that soon.”

The Spiders haven’t won a match in seven games in all competitions and have to look back to September 22 for their last league win, a 4-0 victory away to Elgin.

Last weekend they were comprehensively dumped out of the Scottish Cup 4-0 by Stranraer and over the last seven days they’ve lost 2-1 at home to eighth place East Stirling before Saturday’s stalemate at Montrose.

However, Longworth believes the turning point came at Ibrox when Queen’s were narrowly beaten by Rangers on October 20 and he is desperate to rediscover his form – starting on Friday night with their next league game against Stirling.

He added: “It’s tough not having a win since September and the dip probably started after Ibrox. We played really well in that game and were right in it until Rangers scored late on to make it 2-0.

“I can’t put my finger on what’s happened since then but Friday night gives us a chance to get back to winning ways and I hope I get the chance to do my bit for the team.”