Hearts B were the visitors for our fourth KDM Evolution Trophy match and as the manager rotated the squad, he made four changes to the side that started against Inverness. Ross Stewart and Kai Kennedy both dropped to the bench, while Kurtis Guthrie missed out through injury. Jack Hannah was initially named amongst the substitutes but with Ben Johnstone pulling up in the warm-up he remained in the side. There were starts for Lawton Green in goals along with Niall Rogerson, Freddie ODonoghue and young Billy Gray who partnered each other upfront.
The Tynecastle side had a couple of early chances when Gregor Crookston fired over after just two minutes. He then made his way down the left but hit his shot was straight into the arms of Green.
As the game progressed Queens started to take control but were finding it hard to make a breakthrough. ODonoghue took a nice touch to control a Taylor Charters cross before hitting a low shot that Lyndon Tas got down to save. Sixty seconds later, Liam Smith played the ball into the box from the right-hand side and the keeper made a save from ODonoghue then stopped Grays rebound.
Queens were now knocking on the door and with 24 minutes on the clock, Charters set up ODonoghue who fired a left foot shot low into the bottom corner to open the scoring. Delighted with his strike, the youngster celebrated with a somersault.
The home side had now found their rhythm and Jack Stott won a corner with a snapshot from 19-yards, as the set-piece was floated in, it was headed on for Rogerson at the back-post but the flag was up.
Hearts hit on the counter and Connor Dow took a touch and turned before firing over.
Then with just over half an hour played Mikey Hewitt doubled the lead. Stott delivered a free-kick into the area that Matty Douglas headed back across to Hewitt who finished from close range.
The final shot of the first half came from Stott who was off target with his volley from outside the box.
HALF TIME: Queens 2 Hearts 0
The game looked done and dusted at the break but the visitors stepped it up after the interval and Dow was in a dangerous area on a couple of occasions. Just before the hour mark he and Douglas clashed and crashed into the advertising boards with the Queens Captain hitting them full on head first.
Dow was a thorn in the side of Queens defenders but he hit his shot from12-yards straight at Green. Queens broke up field only for Hewitts shot to be knocked out for a corner. As the corner was knocked out wide, Reece Lyon played in back in but ODonoghues header was too high. Minutes later the frontman slipped the ball into Smith but the winger was well over with his shot. As they got forward again, Charters hit his left foot effort over and ODonoghue was also too high with his.
With just under 25 minutes left to play, there was another positive for Queens as Brennan Dickenson came off the bench after six months sidelined due to injury. However, that was to be the last of the good news as from then on Hearts really threatened and Tommy North had a couple of chances to pull one back, but he missed the first and headed over the second.
They did find the net in the 73rd minute when Douglas who was possibly still suffering the effects of the collision with the metal hording lost the ball 20-yards out and as North made his way into the box he beat Green with a right foot shot. With Queens all at sea, it didnt take them long to score a second, just two minutes later a mix up between Hannah and the keeper allowed Bobby McLuckie to slip the ball under them into the net to level the game.
Queens were toiling but Dickenson did offer a glimmer of hope with a left foot shot from distance that was just shy of the top corner. They were pretty much on the back foot though and they conceded again, a third in the space of seven minutes when Gus Stevenson, aided by Douglas slotted the ball past Green to put the Jambos ahead.
In added on time, Dickenson got on the end of Hewitts delivery but headed over.
FULL TIME: Queens 2 Hearts B 3