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Queen's were on the backfoot from the start and were being caused problems by the pace of Raith forwards Derek Carcary and Graeme Weir. Stevie Hislop was the first to come close for Rovers, as he headed the ball just past the post with Cairns beaten. Paul Paton then headed narrowly wide from an Alan Trouten corner kick before Cairns made a decent save to deny Weir. All within the first five minutes of play.
Only the outstretched leg of Richard Sinclair denied Weir another attempt on goal before Paton made a superb crunching tackle to halt the well known wing wizard Carcary in his tracks on the left side. Hislop hammered an overhead kick over from the resulting corner. Stuart Kettlewell dragged a twenty yard effort just wide of the goal on 29 minutes before Rovers took the lead on 32.
Everybody was worrying about the obvious threats of Hislop and Marvin Andrews and that allowed Weir to sneak in from nowhere and head Carcary's whipped free kick past the stranded Cairns in the Queen's goal. A poor mistake from the Queen's defence, and sadly it wasn't the last on a poor day for them.
Alan Trouten should have levelled on 37 minutes but he pulled out of Mick Dunlop's cross at the back post as Andrews bore down on him, not the first or last time a Queen's player had seemed intimidated by the big ex Rangers stopper. Rovers doubled their on advantage on half time when Mick Dunlop bizzarely pulled back Carcary when their was no need to do so, penalty Raith and Graeme Weir slammed it high past Cairns. Stark's half time team talk had just became more difficult.
Queen's came out of the blocks after half time and within seconds we showed more menace than the whole first period altogether, when Kettlewell, Cairney and Trouten linked up only for Pelosi to stop them in their tracks. We pulled one back on 50 minutes, and unsurprisingly like most good things so far this season, Paul Paton and Alan Trouten were involved.
Paton sent Trouten up the right, he crossed to Ronald whose initial effort was well saved by Fahey in the Rovers goal but Paul Cairney appeared at the back post and slammed the ball high into the Raith goals, game on and Queen's somehow got level moments later.
Alan Trouten beat four players with a stunning mazy run and was hauled down by Davidson in the box, penalty Queen's, and despite the stalling by Fahey, Trouten did his usual splendid job from the spot sliding the ball past the ex Albion Rovers goalkeeper. There was danger in the Queen's ranks seconds later though, Mark Cairns flapped at Derek Carcary's whizzed effort and only a brilliant last ditch Agostini tackle denied Weir his hat trick.
Fahey made a similiar error from a Paul Cairney thunderbolt and presented Trouten with a tap in from three yards, unbelievably though, Trouts could only knock the ball up and straight into the grateful Fahey's arms. That was Queen's last real chance and from then on Rovers took control. Graeme Weir hammered a low free kick through Cairns and the wall minutes later to complete his hat trick, before Weir's flick on was rocketed into the net by Chris Silvestro from twenty yards to make it 4-2.
Stevie Hislop got Raith's 5th with 20 minutes left when once again the Queen's defence were all too busy marking Andrews to notice the ex Ross County and Livingston man ghosting in to knock the ball past the stranded Cairns from six yards. To make a bad day worse, Trouten was dismissed for a petulant off the ball kick on Slivestro and Paul Ronald limped off with an injury leaving Bowers the only recognised striker left to play on Tuesday night at Shire.
All in all, a bad day at the office for the Queen's men.
QUEEN'S PARK: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Richard Sinclair, Damiano Agostini, Alan Trouten, Stuart Kettlewell, Paul Cairney, Paul Ronald (Tony Quinn), Stephen Canning (Shaun Molloy), Mark Ferry (Stuart McGrady)
SUBS NOT USED: Richard Bowers, Alex Cowie
GOALSCORERS: Paul Cairney (49), Alan Trouten (pen 51)
BOOKED: Richard Sinclair, Paul Paton
SENT OFF: Alan Trouten
REFEREE: David Somers
ATTENDANCE: 1,015
MAN OF THE MATCH: Paul Cairney
pic: Jim Foy