In the red and white of the Bully Wee were two more familar faces for the QP faithful, Stuart Kettlewell and Alan Trouten were Spiders stars up until the end of last season, and now they would lock horns with their former club.
The first real action of note from anyone on the park was that of referee Stuart Dougal, he didn't do much to endear himself to the travelling fans throughout the match and he started in that vein on only 3 minutes, booking Paul Harkins for his first foul of the match. The yellow card didn't knock the talented midfielder off his stride though and his defence splitting pass sent through Adam Coakley for the match's first chance. He took a touch before firing the ball straight at Peter Cherrie, when he really should have opened the scoring.
Despite dominating possesion, little was being done and we were made to pay for a lack of incisiveness as Bully Wee took the lead on 14 minutes. A corner into the box was flicked on by Mark Brown, an opponent in last year's Amateur Cup final, and Roddy McLennan pounced on defensive uncertainty to give the First Division side the lead, with the aid of a deflection. This bad luck, was to become typical of Queen's night.
We continued to dominate possesion, but didn't create a chance of note until the half hour mark, when after Cairney's cutback, Harkins' shot was deflected wide. Another impressive piece of play by Harkins however, who is quickly making an impression on the QP faithful. Cairney again caused havoc on the wing and another cutback from the midfield dynamo looked certain to be rammed home by Holms, great defending however stopped the youngster in his tracks, and the resulting corner predictably came to nothing for Spiders. Adam Coakley then made space after beating the Clyde defence for pace initially, but his cross from the right had no-one to find in the centre of the park.
Clyde made two changes at the break, as boss John Brown was obviously disappointed at his side's first half performance. On came Willie McLaren and ex Wattenscheid player Michael Ohnesorge, replacing veteran Marvyn Wilson and Pat Clarke. Clyde were beginning to get more of the play in the second period but Spiders refused to buckle. It took a while for Queen's to get back in their stride, but when they did the football was marvellous.
Great play by Dunn forced a corner kick and it was one which almost produced an early goal of the season contender. Douglas with the outswinger to the edge of the box, Harkins with the sweet volley and as Queen's fans readied to celebrate the ball flew narrowly wide of the mark. Minutes later, to make things worse, Queen's were two down.
Referee Dougal harshly penalised John Neill thirty yards out and Alan Trouten swung the free kick into the penalty area. It was met by Jimmy Gibson, and Queen's had conceded another frustratingly simple goal. We're only three games in to the season, and a pattern is developing. The heads didn't go down however and once again it took some ballsy subs for things to get better for Queen's. On came Quinn and McGrady to replace the unconvincing Coakley and the hard working Dunn, and almost instantly, we were back in the match.
Quinn's high cross into the box was challenged for by McGrady but Ohnesorge headed to safety, Paul Harkins was on cue at the edge of the box however to hammer a delightful half volley past Cherrie, and rekindle hopes of a League Cup glory night. Clyde then replaced Ruari McLennan with veteran Gary McSwegan, and he was the man who won the game for Clyde.
On 86 minutes he won a penalty after a penalty box collision with Crawford, and despite having his spot kick saved by penalty king Crawford, he rammed the rebound past the keeper from close range. The heads did go down this time and two minutes later Clyde got an undeserved fourth. McSwegan tucking a cross past Crawford after great work by Ohnesorge. A disappointing result, but a good performance, which sets us in good stead for the clash with Raith Rovers on Saturday.
QUEEN'S PARK: David Crawford, Martin Ure, Barry Douglas, Richard Sinclair, Jamie Brough, Paul Harkins, Robert Dunn (Stuart McGrady), Paul Cairney, Adam Coakley (Tony Quinn), John Neill, Ryan Holms
SUBS NOT USED: Damiano Agostini, Ross Dunlop, Zander Cowie (gk)
GOALSCORER: Paul Harkins (82)
BOOKED: Paul Harkins, John Neill
REFEREE: Stuart Dougal
ATTENDANCE: 690
MAN OF THE MATCH: Paul Harkins