Queen of the South 4 (Tosh 21, Burns 47, O'Connor 55, Stewart 59)
Aberdeen 3 (Considine 2 [36, 58], Nicholson 51)
Attendance 24,008
This win, against all the odds, was thoroughly
deserved and underlined yet again that the romance of
the cup is alive and well, even in Scotland where real
cup shocks are in short supply compared with the FA
Cup south of the border.
Both sides fielded a former Rangers player in their
starting line-ups - Stephen Dobbie for Queens, Barry
Nicholson for Aberdeen.
The SPL side had the early pressure, but it was the
Palmerston outfit who were like a breath of fresh air
with their open attacking play.
Dobbie came close to opening the scoring in twelve
minutes when Dobbie curled a twenty-yard effort just
wide from a Steve Tosh pass.
Five minutes later it was Dobbie again - on this
occasion his shot from the edge of the area from Sean
O'Connor's downward header was blocked.
The opening goal was coming - and when it fell to
Queens it was thoroughly merited - Tosh netting after
a Ryan McCann free-kick had seen Dons goalkeeper Derek
Soutar fail to gather under pressure from O'Connor.
Six minutes later Paul Burns had the ball in the net
again for the 'Doonhammers' only for it to be chalked
off for offside.
Aberdeen finally tested Queen's goalkeeper in 28
minutes when Lee Miller's header from a Richard foster
cross was comfortably held.
Against the run of play it was 1-1 eight minutes later
when Nicholson's free-kick, headed back across goal by
Scott Severin, was nodded into the corner of the net
by Andrew Considine.
The First Division side suffered an injury blow in 41
minutes when Dobbie limped off to be replaced by
former Aberdeen player John Stewart.
The Pittodrie men scarcely deserved to be level at the
interval, but undaunted Queens regained the lead two
minutes after the restart when Stewart streaked away
down the left before crossing to Paul Burns whose
first effort was parried by Soutar, the forward making
no mistake with his second attempt.
Aberdeen tried to respond immediately - Chris Maguire
seeing his low shot turned wide by MacDonald in 49
minutes, yet Queens might have gone 3-1 up within
sixty seconds when Burns scooped the ball over on the
turn from an Andy Aitken knock-down.
The Dons capitalised fully on that near-miss,
levelling the scores in 51 minutes when Maguire's
cross found Lee Miller whose header was parried by
MacDonald, Nicholson stabbing home the rebound.
Incredibly within four minutes the 'Doonhammers' were
back in the lead when Sean O'Connor coolly slotted
the ball home after going through on a long ball from
Steve Tosh.
The goals were flowing now in Mount Florida - and it
was 3-3 in 58 minutes when Considine headed home his
second goal of the afternoon after Nicholson's cross
had been head-flicked on to the back post by Miller.
Unbelievably within sixty seconds Queen's had regained
the lead for a fourth time when Ryan McCann's cross
was headed down by Jim Thomson for Stewart to exact
the ultimate revenge against his former club after the
Dons fans had verbally abused him when he came on as a
substitute in the first-half.
Seven goals in twelve minutes - this was some
semi-final…
O'Connor almost added a fifth in 63 minutes when,
following a Robert Harris corner, his shot was blocked
after the ball broke to him, then two minutes later
his fifteen-yard shot was held by Soutar.
Aberdeen came agonisingly close to a fourth equaliser
in 71 minutes when Zander Diamond's header from a
Nicholson free-kick struck the crossbar, the central
defender seizing on the rebound to knock the ball
against a post.
The Dons had a penalty claim turned down by Referee
Kenny Clark ten minutes later when Sone Aluko went
down under a challenge from Thomson as he moved onto a
Severin pass.
The Palmerston men were tiring - and as Aberdeen piled
on the pressure Severin's header from a Maguire cross
was held by MacDonald in 85 minutes.
With the clock ticking down to the final whistle
Nicholson's volley was held by MacDonald and Queen's
survived a surprising four minutes of injury time to
secure a remarkable victory and progress to their
first-ever Scottish Cup Final.
Afterwards a jubilant Queen's Manager Gordon Chisholm
summarised:
"I always thought we had a chance. It was a great game
to watch - we kept giving goals away. It hasn't sunk
in yet, this is a massive achievement. It's history in
the making. It was a long four minutes of injury
time."
A crestfallen Jimmy Calderwood of Aberdeen reflected:
"This is one of the worst moments of my career. It's a
massive disappointment. We probably deserved to lose -
sloppy defending cost us dear. A great chance has
been lost. Defensively we were awful. Some of our
players might never have a chance like this again. We
lost our discipline. We've coped with visits to Munich
and Madrid this season, but couldn't cope with this
game."
The day belonged to Queen of the South however - and
they can look forward to another visit to Hampden on
24 May when they will face either Rangers, Partick
Thistle or St. Johnstone.
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH MacDonald; McCann (Paton 90),
Harris; MacFarlane, Aitken, Thomson; McQuilken, Tosh,
O'Connor, Dobbie (Stewart 41), Burns
UNUSED SUBS Grindlay, O'Neill, Gilmour
ABERDEEN Soutar; Maybury (Young 79), Diamond,
Considine, McNamara (Mackie 61); Foster, Severin,
Nicholson, Aluko; Miller, Maguire
UNUSED SUBS Touzani, Langfield, Duff
REFEREE Kenny Clark