After the long trip to Brora at the weekend it was back home in the Premier Sports league as we welcomed the group’s top seeds Aberdeen. With Kurtis Guthrie carrying an injury from the weekend, the manager made one change to the starting line-up with Ben Johnstone playing in place of the big striker.
Queens made their intentions clear from kick-off as they took the game to the visitors but it was the Dons who had the first real attempt on goal when the trialist keeper came out to collect at the feet of Tony Yogane inside the first five minutes.
It was fairly even and end-to-end and it was the hosts who took the lead after fourteen minutes when Liam Smith made a brilliant run and jinxed his way into the box. He was brought down but as the game played on the ball fell nicely to Nicky Clark and he smashed a right foot shot high into the net for his third goal in three games.
Midway through the half, Jack Hannah made an exceptional tackle out wide to halt the run of Yogane and two minutes later, Johnstone caught it on the volley as he hit a snap shot that Marius Muller got down to collect.
As the half progressed, Aberdeen forced a few corners but Queens were defending well and the league one side were giving the Premiership team a run for their money. It was a decent contest but with ten minutes of the first half remaining a lapse in concentration saw Niall Rogerson give away a penalty as Lewis Smith went down inside the box and Lloyd Wilson had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. The keeper guessed the wrong way as Kevin Nisbet fired the ball low into the bottom corner from the penalty spot to level.
Boosted by the goal, Yogane worked his way along the byline before he was challenged and the ball was cleared for a corner at the front post.
It was Queens who had the final chance of the first half when Rogerson won a free-kick outside the area. As Smith floated in the set-piece, Rogerson got his head on the delivery but couldn’t direct the ball towards the target.
HALF TIME: Queens 1 Aberdeen 1
It had been a decent encounter in the first half but as they brought on fresh legs the visitors had the upper hand after the break with substitute Olu Olusanya causing a few problems.
were holding out and as they hit on the counter, Smith did do well to keep the ball in the middle of the park before finding Caleb Goldie on the wing but as he crossed there was no one on hand to take advantage.
More Aberdeen changes followed and with Queens starting to tire so did the goals. Midway through the second half, the keeper made a save to stop a close-range effort from crossing the line but as the resulting corner was played in, Nisbet grabbed his second of the night with a header into the bottom corner.
And it was game over, three minutes later when Nisbet got on the end of a cross from the left to fire a left foot shot low into the corner to completed his hat-trick.
The visitors maintained the pressure and the keeper came out to make an important block from Ayoub Mouloua. But the Dons added a fourth when from the corner, Brad Lyons scored with a glancing header at the front post.
It was a tough test for Queens but a game where they can take a lot of positives from as they prepare for their final group game away at Queens Park on Saturday.
FULL TIME: Queens 1 Aberdeen 4
Teams:
Queens: Trialist, Goldie, Charters, Stott, McQueen, Hannah, Smith, Rogerson, Johnstone (Luissint 87), Clark (Gray 87) & Mackenzie. Subs not used: Petry, Kelly, Thomson, Morton & Trialist.
Aberdeen: Muller, Yogane (Mar Kjartansson 65), Lyons, Briedl (Armstong 65), Smith (Olusanya 46), Nisbet (Mouloua 73), Molloy (Guinness-Walker 46), Mayo, Ronan, Happe & Aremu. Subs not used: Mitov, Lobban, Milne & Marshall.
Ref: Lloyd Wilson
Crowd: 1607