Our young reserve side were narrowly beaten 1-0 tonight by Lochar Thistle in the Potts Cup Final at Dalbeattie Star's Islecroft Stadium.

Despite a quick rain shower just before kick off it was a lovely night in Dalbeattie and conditions were good for the game. However, it didn't really live up to its billing and was a game of very few clear chances. Queens had more of the ball throughout but a well marshalled Lochar defence seldom gave any scoring opportunities to the youngsters no matter how much they prodded for one and when they did goalkeeper Jake Gemmell was more than capable of dealing with them. When Lochar did break forward though they did so with a purpose and quick direct football which produced the better chances, certainly in the first half. The only goal of the game arrived inside the first ten minutes. A free kick on halfway was lifted into the penalty area and headed down. Marcus Zygadlo, a former Queens youth, reacted far quicker than anyone else to the loose ball and got there just in front of Mark Thomson in the QoS goal to dink the ball over the goalkeeper and into the net.

Try as they might Queens could not find an equalising goal and Lochar couldn't add a second. Just before the hour mark Gemmell produced a fine one handed tip round the post from Lewis Downie's effort, and Downie was very unfortunate five minutes later to see a curling effort from out wide just evade both the far post and a late arriving team-mate's leg the one time Gemmell was unable to get near the ball. With quarter of an hour to go Peter Mendy had an opportunity from close range following a corner kick but he could only find the safe hands of Jake Gemmell with it. Substitute Billy Gray gave the keeper more work late on but in truth there just wasn't enough pressure on the Lochar goal throughout the game and in the end the Wilson Park club held on for the win relatively comfortably.

We congratulate Lochar Thistle on their win and would like to thank the South of Scotland League Committee and Dalbeattie Star for their work in organising the tournament and match. Thanks also to the refereeing team.

QoS Team:
1 Mark Thomson, 2 Jay Burns, 3 Callum Hill, 4 Charlie Watson, 5 Niall Rogerson, 6 Lewis Currie, 7 Shay Meagher, 8 Euan Ross, 9 Peter Mendy, 10 Finlay Kennedy, 11 Lewis Downie
Subs: 12 Matt Hall, 14 Alex O'Hagan, 15 Billy Gray, 16 Finlay Millar, 17 Cammy Edgar, 18 Andy Oram, GK Johnny Green

Lochar Thistle Team:
1 Jake Gemmell, 2 Reece Irving, 3 Rory Copland, 4 Lewis Todd, 5 Craig McKeand, 6 Jordan Muirhead, 7 Marcus Zygadlo, 8 Blair Steele, 9 Robbie Ferguson, 10 Robbie Hogg, 11 Liam Nish
Subs: 12 Devon Nicholson, 14 Brodie Turner, 15 Brian Mullen, 16 Ryan Coates, 17 Josh McVinnie, 18 Oliver Cairnie, 19 Adam Bertnam

Referee - Brian Templeton. Assistants - Adrian Brown and Ewan MacFarlane