Allan Johnston was positive about his team’s performance as Queen of the South narrowly lost 2-1 to SPL side Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup Second Round at Rugby Park.

The game started in disastrous fashion for the Doonhamers as Stephen McKenna saw red after just ninety seconds as his tackle on Borja Perez was seen as a dangerous one by the referee.  Things went from bad to worse as poor marking from a corner saw Cillian Sheridan unmarked to fire Kilmarnock into the lead.  As Queens’ ten men pushed for an equaliser Gary Harkins led a counter attack and his low cross found Perez to extend the home side’s lead before Nicky Clark bulleted a diving header past Cammy Bell with ten minutes remaining.  The goal was no more than a consolation though as the Second Division leaders were unable to force a replay.

Queens manager Allan Johnston on McKenna’s red card: “It’s frustrating, I know it’s a hard job being a referee but it just looked like a strong tackle, he got the ball.  I’ve seen it again on the video and in my opinion I don’t think it warrants a sending off but at the end of the day I’m not a referee.”

Despite the disadvantage the ten men of Queens defended well and caused the home side plenty of problems at the other end which encouraged Johnston.

“To play against a top SPL side with the quality they have, we didn’t want them passing through us – that’s what happened when we came here last year.  We just wanted to be compact and restrict them to longer passes. 

“The goals we lost were frustrating.  The first from a corner which is unlike us, poor marking, and obviously it was our corner for the second one they hit us on the counter attack.  After playing so well and scoring a great goal as well to lose two goals like that was disappointing.

“The boys have a lot to gain from that game, they showed that they can play at a higher level and that was the big challenge to see if they are good enough to play against SPL opposition week in week out and maintain those type of standards.”