This was after Stranraer had made a very reasonable start to the new campaign, Forfar Athletic were stuffed 3-0 on the opening day as Queen's battered and bruised Brechin at Hampden and in last week's CIS Cup action they were beaten 2-1 by big spending Montrose. With Queen's on good form, Stranraer will need to put in a top performance to take a win from Hampden looking at the form book. Since a 2-0 defeat to Berwick Rangers on January 13th, Queen's have won all but one of their home matches, a 1-1 draw against East Fife in February.
This is the first time the sides have met since that infamous Scottish Cup 1st Round tie of December 2004, in which despite dominating proceedings a late Steven Swift handed Stranraer a ridiculously spawny 1-0 victory. Our last meeting at Hampden is not one which many would like to remember, we were dominated and beaten 2-0 by Neil Watt's Third Division Championship winning side in February 2004.
Queen's are likely to be without Paul Ronald, who missed Saturday's game at Ayr. Robert Dunn could return to the starting line up after featuring on the bench at Somerset after recovering from his calf knock, while Stephen Reilly is likely to miss out once more, but could be back to replace the suspended Richard Sinclair by Saturday. Like last year, there is a very good chance that BS may gave some of his fringe players a chance to impress in the Challenge Cup, he did that last year at Shire, and we won 5-0.
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