Queen of the South 0 - 0 Aberdeen

Aberdeen were given an early warning as early as the first minute when Queens carved out the first chance of the match. McLaughlin headed the ball into the path of O'Neil who reacted quickest and volleyed over from 8 yards. The Dons settled well however and McNaughton was the playmaker as he terrorised the hosts on the right hand side with some probing runs. The Dons early chances were limited to a sliced Chris Clark shot in the 4th minute and a blocked Mackie drive five minutes later.

The Dons carved out a decent chance in the 10th minute when McNaughton put Clark through on the right. The winger was forced wide but still managed to fire over a decent cross which Mackie flicked onto the head of D'Jaffo. The lack of pace on the ball made it difficult for the Frenchman as he steered the ball over the bar. The Dons had control at this stage as the hosts struggled to pin down the rampaging McNaughton.

In between the two cautions Aberdeen carved out another chance as Clark drilled in a low shot from 20 yards following good build up play by McAllister. However Andy Goram was down well to deny the Dons the lead. Aberdeen were starting to impose themselves and in the 29th minute Anderson had a powerful header blocked as he tried to convert a McNaughton free kick. McGuire collected the loose ball and drilled it against a Queens defender. The centre-back made a rather weak appeal for a penalty, but a corner was quite rightly awarded.

Three minutes later D'Jaffo had a 20-yard drive easily held by Goram after some neat play by Derek Young. The Doonhamers then enjoyed a period of possession without ever threatening the Dons goal. They went close however in the 38th minute when Paton had a pot at goal from 30 yards. The effort went wide and from the restart the Dons countered when McNaughton went marauding down the right flank again only to pull up sharply after delivering his first poor cross of the day.

McNaughton failed to recover and was replaced in the 41st minute by new signing Paul Sheerin. Sheerin got involved immediately delivering a pin-point accurate corner in the 43rd minute which Anderson headed high over the bar. In the final minute of the half Mackie should have put the Dons ahead following a scramble inside the Queen's box. The ball broke to Mackie and as the home team appealed for offside Mackie steered the ball inches wide of the post with only Goram to beat.

O'Connor replaced McColligan in the 62nd minute and the Queens man should have done better five minutes later when he beat the offside trap and went one on one with David Preece. Poor control let him down however and Preece was able to collect as the ball ran away from him. Both sides were struggling to show any sort of composure in front of goal, but in the 67th minute Queen of the South carved out the best chance of the match. Weatherson hit a peach of a shot from 35 yards, which dipped and swerved as it headed for the net. Somehow Preece threw himself across his goal to turn the ball round the post.

Mike was thrown into the fray in the 73rd minute but his best attempts were two headers in the space of a minute which both went wide of the target. Tosh also drilled an effort wide and O'Donoghue (who replaced McAllister) hit a volley off target as the Dons endured a nervous last ten minutes. The closing minutes witnessed some desperate Dons defending and the final whistle was a welcome sound.