The Palmerston Park crowd certainly got their moneys worth tonight as Queen of the South ran out 4-2 winners over League Cup holders St Mirren in their final match of pre-season.

Queens dominated much of the first half and deservedly took the lead through Stephen McKenna`s fabulous volley on 23 minutes to go in at half-time in the lead.  The SPL side came out firing after the break and equalised as Gary Harkins beat two Queens defenders before rounding Callum Antell to score after 48 minutes.  The home side immediately regained the lead as Gavin Reilly was brought down by St Mirren`s goalkeeper Dilo to allow Michael Paton to score from the spot.  A raft of substitutions followed but the action was not finished as Gary Teale levelled the scores with an audacious lob after 68 minutes.  Derek Lyle was then set through by Dan Carmichael to net after 73 minutes before wrapping up the victory with his second on 88 minutes from Dan Orsi`s centre.

Queens manager Jim McIntyre said: “I thought some of our stuff again was very good.  I`m very pleased with the way the team is shaping up, I thought we passed the ball exceptionally well and deserve credit because St Mirren are a very good side and they put us under real pressure in the second half.

“I don`t pay major attention to pre-season results.  When the real stuff starts is when it counts.  Yes, it`s pleasing and you always want to put on good performances, especially in front of the home supporters.  Hopefully the boys will take a lot of confidence from the way they`ve played but as I say it`s pre-season.  It was nice to win and to score goals because that was the only thing that was lacking from our performance on Saturday.”

Saturday sees Queens get their season started with a Ramsdens Cup First Round tie at home to Spartans but McIntyre was unwilling to get carried away with the team`s successful pre-season when the league season gets underway.

“We`re not going to shout our mouths off, to say that we are going to do this and that, we`re a newly promoted team and I think most teams in the league will look to the top half.  We`ll take it game by game and see where it takes us but for me I think we`ve got a very good side.”