THIS 'game of one half' will be remembered for a goal and a half – Ryan McCann's 80-yard, injury-time effort that clinched the tie for Queen of the South.
Received wisdom suggests your average Scottish League full-back struggles to find a team-mate with a ten-yard pass. So when McCann, 20 yards or so from his own goal, trapped a ricochet off Dundee goalkeeper turned auxiliary attacker Craig Samson, 'L
ump it up the park as far as you can', was the single collective thought of everyone of a Queens persuasion inside a packed Palmerston. Everyone that is, except McCann.
Yes, he lumped the ball up the park, but before he did so he paused, looked up and successfully backed himself to place the ball into the empty net, 80 yards away, before the frantically back-pedalling Samson or his defenders could intervene.
Given Mike McCurry blew for time up five seconds after the ball bounced into the unguarded Dundee net, the goal mattered little, but it was still a memorable moment of skill in a game marked more for effort than educated football.
"To even attempt to score from there showed terrific skill," said Queens manager Gordon Chisholm in admiration.
The Dumfries side's other goal, on-fire hitman Stephen Dobbie's 17th strike of the season, was also set-up from long-range, goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald's lengthy clearance eluding the visiting defence, with the ball sitting up nicely for Dobbie to take a touch then fire past the helpless Samson from 16 yards.
That strike came six minutes into the second half and in the context of a fiercely-fought traditional cup tie, it proved crucial.
The first half had been a dogged midfield battle but the only memorable cameos had been an exquisite turn from Dobbie past Paul Dixon followed by a vicious low shot across goal and Jamie McQuilken's thumping tackle on a bare-chested pitch invader in 39 minutes.
The second half, with the wind less of a factor than it had been before the break, was a better 45 minutes. Dobbie's goal punctuated the Doonhamers' good start to the half, while his turn and pass to release Stevie Tosh in 62 minutes was another rare moment to savour, as was Samson's save from the former Dundee man when he shot.
Samson later produced an even better save to thwart a John Stewart breakaway in 81 minutes, the goalkeeper deserving great credit for closing down the forward as he broke clear.
In comparison Queens' last line MacDonald had less to do. He did spill a Paul Dixon shot at the feet of Jan Zemlik in 49 minutes, but redeemed himself with a great block from the giant forward, but that was as close as Dundee came to scoring.
"Had that gone in....," sighed a rueful Alex Rae before criticising his defenders for the crucial opening goal, which came two minutes later.
But he was honest enough to concede this was always going to be a tough tie for his side. "It's never easy here and with the players we had missing, it was always going to be a big ask to get anything, but the League remains our priority and we will regroup and battle on," he promised.
Queens are too far behind the top two to have realistic league dreams, so for them, a first cup semi-final since the 1950 days of Billy Houliston and Co will be their season's highlight.
"I want Aberdeen," said former Pittodrie midfielder Tosh afterwards, "but whichever side we get, we'll enjoy the day and maybe getting to the semi-final will help us lose this wee team image we have. But will be a great day for everyone and we intend to enjoy it.''
That view was shared by manager Chisholm. "We made the quarter-finals last season, so to reach the last four is progress and justifies our decision to go full-time this season. The chairman does things well here and hopefully the money will help us to compete for better quality players.
"In truth I didn't enjoy the game, there was too much pressure, and with the terrible first-half conditions I was happy at 0-0 at the break. It wasn't a great game, but it was a great cup tie."
This match will long be remembered in Dumfries, it meant so much to everyone there, not least chairman David Rae, who was on the park celebrating at the end. Rae is from the 'fan first – chairman second' school and is already forecasting that the club can take 10-12,000 fans to Hampden for the semi-final, in which they will face the winner of the replay between Celtic and Aberdeen.
"We've waited 58 years for this and the town will be buzzing," he forecast. Rae wasn't at that legendary 1950 final, but he remembers as a schoolboy listening to the radio commentary back home in Dumfries.
"We're under no pressure going into the game, so we intend savouring the day and I'll not miss this one," he added.
Another man who will enjoy the big day out is Queens veteran captain Jim Thomson. A local legend in the town, he stood firm in the face of Dundee's late rally and emerged victorious from his individual battle with Zemlik, while going forward at every opportunity in search of a goal or a knock-down to the likes of Dobbie or Sean O'Connor.
Now, having tamed the threat of the 6ft 7in Zemlik, he's looking forward to testing himself against Premier Division forwards at Hampden.
The full article contains 948 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
