QOS 0
Dundee Utd 3
Scottish Cup (4th Round)

Match Report

Ian McCall gave the majority of the players involved in the thrashing on Wednesday night the chance to put things right by making only two changes for the potentially tricky Cup tie at Palmerston. Paul Ritchie took the captain’s armband for the afternoon in the absence of Derek McInnes whose place was taken by Stuart Duff. Nick Colgan dropped to the bench with Tony Bullock regaining his place between the posts. Queen of the South had former United man, David Craig, in the heart of their defence. There was a great atmosphere in the ground with the travelling Arabs in great spirits.

Queens were the first to go on the attack and following a foul by Duff on Stephen Bowey, they forced the first corner of the afternoon. The resulting corner was gathered easily by Tony Bullock who was looking to impress following his recall. On the 13-minute mark, there was nothing the home defence could do to stop their SPL visitors taking a well-deserved lead. United almost doubled their lead after 20 minutes when McIntyre swung in a brilliant cross which Stuart Duff headed against the bar although the United man was ruled to have been in an offside position. Five minutes later, the Tannadice men did go two up. Mark Wilson picked the ball up in the Queens half and lobbed it forward to the head of Crawford. The striker’s header came back to Wilson who hit a rasping volley from 35 yards out which Colin Scott got his hands to, but the ball fell behind the line to send the travelling band of Arabs into a frenzy. With five minutes of the half remaining Ian McCall's men put the tie beyond their hosts. McIntyre again was fed by Robson on the left and his deep cross was miskicked by Gibson. The ball landed at the feet of Stuart Duff who calmly slotted the ball home.

Not surprisingly, United returned for the second half with no changes to their line-up. Five minutes after the break it was nearly 4-0 when Barry Robson powered through the Queens midfield and set up Jim McIntyre who shot into the side netting. Despite holding a comfortable lead it was United who looked the more likely to add to their tally on the afternoon. Twice in the dying minutes they went close to a forth. First of all a cross from Archibald found man of the match Jim McIntyre at the back post but his header was saved by Scott. It was then Archibald himself who created and opportunity. An excellent one-two with Brebner set up the former Partick man and his shot stung the hands of the Queen's keeper. The final whistle sounded and was greeted with a huge cheer from the 1500 travelling supporters who had made the long journey south.