Knackered Queen's fell to their first defeat since the Hampden horrorshow against Arbroath, as they were outplayed by First Division runners up, St Johnstone at their McDiarmid Park ground.
It was Spiders first visit to Perth to play St Johnstone at their "new" stadium, which was opened back in 1989. It wasn't for three Queen's people though, Billy Stark served a spell as manager while Mark Ferry and Richard Bowers are both former Saints players, but the legs weren't there from a tired Spiders side, whose gruelling three games a week schedule had taken a toll on.
There were three changes from the side that fought out a 1-1 draw with Dirty Rovers at the weekend, Robert Dunn, Steven Canning and surprisingly Stephen Reilly replacing Tony Quinn, Alan Trouten and Jonny Whelan.
So, Stark started with Cairns in goals and a defence of Dunlop, Paton, Reilly
and Agostini. The midfield was made up of Ferry, Kettlewell, Dunn and Weatherston with Dunn and Ronald up front.
In the opening minutes Saints laid a barrage on the Queen's goals coming closest when Stanic rattled a shot at Cairns and he managed to parry the shot onto the post and Paton humped the ball up the line. They came close a few other times and eventually took the lead just before 20 minutes. Saints Trinidad & Tobago World Cup striker Jason Scotland broke past Paton before lifting the ball over the hesitant Mark Cairns.
Paul Ronald missed a good chance when he was set through on goal, but he blazed over the bar with his left peg from a tightish angle. Queen's couldn't break through a solid Saints rearguard otherwise and they took a two goal lead on 39 minutes. Agostini misjudged the flight of the ball and it sat up well for Saints striker MacDonald twelve yards out, he controlled the ball and fired it past Cairns and into the bottom corner. Queen's heads went down as they knew the game was effectively over.
HALF TIME: St Johnstone 2 - 0 Queen's Park
Shortly into the second period a cross from the right was controlled by impressive forward Jason Scotland and he fired past Cairns, the ball hit the post before crossing the line but that was it, no way back for Spiders.
The Queen's fans incurred the wrath of McDiarmid's jobsworths as they tried to make light out of a dissapointing performance, they sang and sang for half an hour straight and even though the players did improve on the park, they just couldn't find the consolation goal.
Bowers, Ferry and Weatherston came close but couldn't quite manage to get any of their long range efforts on target as the curtain came down on Spiders Challenge Cup campaign this season. Next up is Berwick Rangers on SUNDAY at Shielfield, lets get behind the team as they look to keep their league form going.
QUEEN'S PARK: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Damiano Agostini, Stephen Reilly, Steven Canning, Stuart Kettlewell (Tony Quinn), David Weatherston, Paul Ronald (Alan Trouten), Robert Dunn (Richard Bowers), Mark Ferry
SUBS NOT USED: David Crawford, Jonny Whelan
BOOKING(S): Stephen Reilly
REFEREE: Eddie Smith
ATTENDANCE: 1,351
MAN OF THE MATCH: Stuart Kettlewell, Despite a poor team performance, Stuart kept digging in at the centre of the park and was by far Queen's best player.