Scottish Championship: Can Queen's Park win the league without Simon Murray?

Simon Murray had scored 15 times for Queen's Park this term

Those who know the Scottish Championship often say that a reliable goalscorer can be the difference between winning the title and almost inevitably faltering in the play-offs.

So what of leaders Queen's Park, disarmed this week of the division's joint-leading marksman Simon Murray?

Owen Coyle's side entertain second-placed Ayr United on Friday in their first league game since Murray's deadline-day departure to Ross County. But can they maintain their quest for back-to-back promotions without him?

Queen's have been surprise leaders since leapfrogging Dundee on 2 January, but Ayr, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Partick Thistle have all looked down on the rest earlier in the campaign.

The latter two have tailed off a little, but are still just a string of favourable results from finding themselves back in the mix. Not least given how scores can fluctuate wildly in this closely-contest division.

For example Queen's were blitzed by three goals in the final 20-minutes against Dundee last weekend, an outcome which clawed Gary Bowyer's side back within two points of the summit.

Unbeaten in their last seven league games, with just one defeat in 11, Queens' defeat was a surprise.

That run followed a 5-0 humbling at the hands of Ayr at Somerset Park. Don't expect such a scoreline at Ochilview on Friday. The new kids on the block then, Queens look like old-timers now.

But while they have lost Murray, the man who shares the top spot with him in the scoring charts stayed put at Ayr during the window. Dipo Akinyemi scored a hat trick in that 5-0 trouncing but has been stuck on 15 goals for his last four league games.

It's his longest dry-spell of the term - if you can call it that - so he's due a goal, you'd think. And how crucial might keeping him prove over the next few months?

"We've gone a lot of this season with a target on our backs but we slipped up with a couple of results and dropped down the pecking order a bit," said Ayr boss Lee Bullen.

"Queen's Park are the ones we are aiming for. We are chasing them down."

Can Murray-less Queen's keep up the pace?

Losing your top goalscorer is never ideal, in any case. Even more so when he is captain, the next highest scorer has only found the net seven times, and you're knee-deep into a title race.

Murray brought a bit of experience. He's been around the block in the Premiership, as well as a jolly in South Africa.

He started every game this season in the second-tier, scoring in 10 games, including six-in-a-row over the festive period - with four in the 6-0 hammering of Cove Rangers.

He followed that by travelling on the team bus to Inverness for their Scottish Cup game on Tuesday, before hopping into a taxi over the Kessock Bridge to sign for County. Nice.

"Simon was a fantastic player for Queen's Park, and Queen's Park have been fantastic for Simon," said Coyle on his departure.

"Is it a blow to lose a player of Simon's quality? Absolutely. But the most important thing about our club, always, is the group and that togetherness. We can't have any distractions and that might have been the case.

"We wish him the very, very best, but we will just concentrate on what we do at Queen's Park and look to continue the magnificent run we've been on."