Queen of the South edged out Aberdeen to reach the Scottish Cup final after a seven-goal thriller at Hampden Park.
First Division side win Hampden classic
Queen of the South edged out Aberdeen to reach the Scottish Cup final after a seven-goal thriller at Hampden Park.
Former Aberdeen man John Stewart scored the crucial winning goal to see off The Dons and give the Doonhamers one of their most famous victories.
Five goals were scored in an amazing 15-minute spell in the second half, as Queen of the South caused one of the biggest shocks in Scottish Cup history.
Aberdeen came from behind on three occasions, but Stewart had the last word to send the First Division outfit into the final on 24th May.
Queen of the South showed no sign of nerves in the opening exchanges by taking the game to Aberdeen and they broke the deadlock on 22 minutes through former Dons man Steve Tosh, after a mistake by Aberdeen keeper Derek Soutar.
Soutar failed to clear Ryan McCann's free-kick, with the ball dropping to Andy Aitken, who teed up Tosh to drive the ball home and send the Queen of the South fans into raptures.
Equaliser
The goal stung Aberdeen into action and the SPL side drew level on 36 minutes when Andrew Considine rose highest to head home Scott Severin's header back across goal.
Queen of the South suffered a blow soon after when top scorer Stephen Dobbie was forced to limp off with a knock and had to be replaced by former Aberdeen striker Stewart.
The First Division side came flying out of the traps in the second half and Paul Burns restored their lead four minutes after the restart.
Stewart was the creator when he burst past Zander Diamond down the left and crossed for Burns who saw his initial shot blocked, but when the rebound fell back to him the midfielder superbly fired the ball high into the net.
Aberdeen hit back on 53 minutes when Barry Nicholson scored from close-range after Jamie MacDonald had made a superb save to keep out Lee Miller's header.
The game continued to seesaw before Doonhamers went in front for the third time in the contest on 56 minutes, when Sean O'Connor cut inside Diamond and coolly slided the ball under Soutar.
Three minutes later Aberdeen drew level again when Considine headed home unmarked at the back post, after Miller had flicked Nicholson's cross goalwards.
Winner
Parity proved short-lived as the goal spree continued a minute later when Jimmy Thomson headed the ball down to the unmarked Stewart inside the box and the former Dons man lashed his shot past Soutar.
Queen of the South survived a major scare on 71 minutes when Aberdeen rattled the woodwork twice in the space of seconds.
Diamond was unlucky to see his header come back off the post and from the rebound he cracked his shot against the post as the Queen of the South goal lived a charmed life.
Aberdeen threw everything at Queen of the South in the closing stages but the second tier side held on for a memorable win.
