Stark witnessed a spirited Queen's performance as we lost on penalty kicks to Second Division Forfar Athletic in the Challenge Cup in his first official match as boss, and from then on installed a fantastic passing philosophy within the players. Queen's finished 4th in the Division in season 2004/05 behind runaway promotion winners Gretna and Peterhead, and narrowly behind a good Cowdenbeath side, led by Dave Baikie.
After Queen's narrowly missed out on the end of season play offs in 2005/06, Spiders free flowing football took the Division by storm, in 2006/07. Queen's not only defeated SPL Aberdeen in the CIS Cup 2nd Round, a result which will never be forgotten by anyone in attendance at Firhill, they also won promotion via the playoffs, after winning 16 games in 19 from January-May, inspired by whippet like striker David Weatherston and the young midfield trio of Paul Cairney, Alan Trouten and Paul Paton.
Stark turned down Partick Thistle in the summer and opted to stay at Queen's and the side enjoyed a good start to life in Division Two. Promotion hopefuls Brechin City, Ayr United and Ross County were put to the sword and SPL Hibernian scraped past a spirited Spiders side at Hampden in the CIS Cup 2nd Round. While form has been in a bit of a lull since then, performances havent with Queen's playing some free-flowing football along the way and we are currently sitting in a comfortable mid table position. So, thanks for the memories Billy, its been a great three and a half years.