A spectacular overhead kick from Danny Denholm and the safe hands of Rab Douglas combined to keep Forfar Athletic in the Scottish Cup as the Loons left Queen’s Park after a 1-1 draw.
The sides will meet again at Station Park this Saturday and Loons boss Dick Campbell is glad of the chance, saying: “It was a good old fashioned cup-tie which could have been won by either side.
“The quality of both goals was worthy of winning any cup tie.
“Queen’s came out in the second half and they were all over us and the irony of that was that we managed to get our equaliser. The main thing is that we are still in the cup and we now have it all to do again next week.”
Forfar gave their hosts an early fright when Martyn Fotheringham struck the woodwork from a free-kick but Queen’s took over and went in front on 30 minutes when one-time Loon Chris Duggan drilled home from 25 yards.
Chris Templeman had a chance to level just before the break but he headed over and it looked like Forfar would regret that miss as they struggled to get into the game in the second half.
Denholm, though, played his part in the rescue act by scoring with an overhead kick on the hour-mark, with the winger saying: “It’s the best goal of my career so far.”
Queen’s responded positively to Forfar’s goal and Douglas denied Duggan a winner on two occasions with two wonder saves from close range.
Campbell added: “We did have Rab Douglas to thank for two vital saves towards the end of the match.
“He might be 43 but he has made a career of saves like that and he continues to do it for us.
“We now look forward to doing it all again next Saturday. I hope to have one or two players back from injury and it will be a completely different ball game at Station Park.
“I don’t want to be seen to be making excuses because Queen’s were better than us today but we had four on-loan players unavailable because their clubs would not give permission to use them.
“I also had one or two injuries and that leaves me delighted to still be in this competition”.
Spiders boss Gus MacPherson said “We’re happy to still be in the cup. We maybe should have won it towards the end but we can look forward to next week.”
The replay means Forfar’s scheduled league fixture at home to Peterhead will have to be rearranged.