Old boy Budgie left Aberdeen as sick as parrot

Apr 13 2008 Gordon Waddell at Hampden

NINETEEN minutes gone. Lee Miller's on the six-yard line with nowhere to go.

Feeds Scott Severin on the edge of the box. Picks his spot. You know what's coming. Trademark, hard and low.

But before he has even cocked the hammer Stevie Tosh and Jamie McQuilken are on him like Dobermans on fresh meat.

Fast forward two minutes. Andy Aitken's on the six-yard line with nowhere to go.

Feeds Steve Tosh just inside the box. Picks his spot. And buries it.

Not a red jersey anywhere near him.

Sure, it was the first goal in a game that had 69 minutes and another six strikes left in it - a game that had more twists and turns than a Chinese burn.

But it said all you needed to know about who the true warriors were on Hampden's wide green battlefield in yesterday's Scottish Cup semi-final.

And when you have veterans like that throwing themselves on a grenade to save the troops, you're going over the top with them come hell or high water. If a guy like Tosh told you he was climbing Everest in his carpet slippers and a smoking jacket tomorrow morning, you would pull your pyjamas on and be at his back.

Call it guts, call it leadership, call it hunger, desire, whatever you want. Queens had it by the crateload out there.

And it's not that Aberdeen didn't have the balls for a fight - their opponents just had bigger ones.

Three times Gordon Chisholm's men had a lead and lost it. Three times you thought to yourself: "If they can just hold on and settle ..." Three times they coughed one up before they had the chance. And three times you thought: "That's them this time. Goners".

Aberdeen's pace should have killed them on the flanks. Sone Aluko and Ricky Foster had the beating of their men all day if they had wanted it.

But when one blue jersey didn't cut in, another one appeared to bail them out. And another - and then another.

With 11,000 fans backing them Queens just didn't know when to lie down.

The thing is, this will probably go down as one of Aberdeen's most shameful defeats - up there with Stenhousemuir in 1995 and Queen's Park last season.

For most fans it will be a humiliation too far, a clarion call for Jimmy C to be axed.

And to be fair the defending was shameful at times.

If it's scary statistics you're looking for try this one - in 24 games away from Pittodrie this season they've lost 55 goals. Well over two a game.

Which means to have ANY chance of winning their strikers have to score three. Sometimes even four.

What hope is there when that's the foundation you've built your house on?

And the Dons will never be shown up more than they were for Queens' third. Tosh's ball over the top should have been meat and drink to any stopper.

Instead Andy Considine got horribly under it and flailed miserably. Zander Diamond then got turned inside out like a pillow case in a laundry by the hugely effective - but not exactly lightning - Sean O'Connor.

But to pin the entire game on how bad Aberdeen were is to detract from how wonderful Chisholm and Kenny Brannigan's boys in blue were.

Queens showed they had all the guts in the world - and weren't short of guile either.

For 40 minutes until he was substituted Stephen Dobbie looked like the craftiest player on the park. And Tosh and Neil MacFarlane more than matched up to their cap-laden opposite numbers in midfield. Even coming off the bench you will never see a more ironic cameo than the one played by John Stewart.

He came on to a chorus of boos from the Dons fans - a bit-part Red whose only claim to fame at Pittodrie was the double he bagged at Parkhead a lifetime ago.

The chorus of "Who are ya" echoed from the stands as Budgie took his spot.

But he made his mark all right. McQuilken sent a ball down the line and it was a race between Stewart and Diamond.

Queens' sub might have been quicker anyway - but he was hungrier and that was all that mattered.

Ball to the back post, two bites from Paul Burns, bang. 2-1 for Queens. Remember the name now Dons fans? They certainly won't forget him after Stewart popped up to score No.4.

Eventually Calderwood gave it the kitchen sink but after Diamond hit the bar and post with 19 minutes left it was only going to finish one way.

Red and white scarves on the trackside, blue and white ones aloft.