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Joe Savage could have opened the scoring within 20 seconds for the home side, he was sent clean through on the Shire left but thankfully he could only screw his shot narrowly wide of the mark. Queen's began to settle and within 4 minutes of the start a Paton cross was headed just wide by Stuart McGrady, making his first Spiders start. Paul Paton then had a shot blocked on the edge of the box before Stephen Canning's turning shot was well held by Shirey keeper Darren Hill. Queen's continued to probe and Tony Quinn's toepoke was well held by Hill before Mark Ferry came close after a Mick Dunlop through ball sent him through against the East Stirling goalkeeper.
Shire then notched a goal from nowhere after 33 minutes. On form midfielder Sean Simpson lobbed Cairns from thirty yards after he caught out Mick Dunlop on the left. Simpson's effort took a looping deflection off Agostini and it flew over Queen's veteran keeper and into the net. Queen's had been hit by a sucker punch and they had to get back on level terms, not before Joe Savage hit the side net with a close range header when he should have scored however. Stuart McGrady did then drag a right foot effort inches wide of the Shire goal before the end of the half but the Third Division side held on to their lead for half time.
Straight away, Mark Ferry missed a sitter from close range when played in by Cairney and then Mick Dunlop's powerful header was well blocked by Thywissen on the line and then Hill collected Ferry's rebound as the Queen's players appealed that the ball had crossed the line, to no avail. A handball by Andy Brand seemed to deny Paul Paton the equaliser when he was one on one with an otherwise empty net, but referee Nicholls waved away the QP penalty claims.
We continued to pile forward, but Shire were resolute and by the time the final whistle went the general feeling was that Gordon Wylde's men were well worth their place in the Quarter Final draw.
QUEEN'S PARK: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Richard Sinclair, Damiano Agostini, Tony Quinn (Richard Bowers), Stuart Kettlewell, Paul Cairney, Stuart McGrady, Stephen Canning, Mark Ferry
SUBS NOT USED: Chris Colquhoun, Martin Ure, Shaun Molloy, Alex Cowie
REFEREE: Stephen Nicholls
ATTENDANCE: 379
MAN OF THE MATCH: Paul Cairney
pic: Michael Cameron