Queen of the South will feel unfortunate not to have booked their place in the Fourth Round of the Scottish Cup as St Mirren held them to a 2-2 draw in a pulsating tie at Palmerston.
The Premiership side took the lead through Conor Newton`s low volley after 9 minutes before Queens finally found their groove and equalised through Iain Russell`s deflected finish after 34 minutes. The home side hemmed St Mirren in for much of the rest of the first half but grabbed the lead again 6 minutes into the second period as Stephen Thompson finished from close range following a swift passing move. As in the first half, Queens recovered from the early setback to dominate the game and deservedly equalised through Michael Paton`s close range finish. Despite a strong finish though the Doonhamers could not push a winner and the tie will now be decided at St Mirren Park.
Queens manager Jim McIntyre said: “I thought the players were excellent. It was a difficult start, obviously losing an early goal and St Mirren had us rattled. But I thought after the first 20 minutes we started to make some passes and we started to look a real threat and the boys` confidence grew into the game and I thought from then on in we continued that into the second half. Bar one chance I don`t think St Mirren had anything else.
“St Mirren are a good side and I think outwith Celtic they are the form team in the Premiership so we knew it was going to be difficult. We knew they would be desperate to reverse the result in the League Cup. Great credit to our boys, to go behind twice and to come back and I felt we finished the game strong.”
McIntyre was full of praise for Michael Paton as the former-Aberdeen forward grabbed the equaliser to cap an impressive performance: “Michael certainly turned up today, I thought he was fantastic and he caused real problems all day. We`re asking him to be more dynamic when he gets in those pockets and he certainly did that and took the game to them.
“Two great goals, really good goals particularly the second goal. It was a real bit of quality and good play, a great finish and good composure. It would have been easy to slash at that so very pleasing.
“We`ve got a chance in the replay. It`s at their home ground but it`s up to us to put on a performance. It`ll be difficult again, they are a Premiership side and we know that we need to have everyone playing at their maximum to get a result but we`ll be striving to do that.”