How the Queen's Park and Dundee title madness unfolded

Tonight, it is the very centre of the world for Queen’s Park and Dundee. Both are a long way from home, but as fans spill out of pubs and supporters’ buses – grinding traffic to a halt as they go – they will both stake a claim to make this little place their own.

Some are so well on they probably won’t remember much of the next 90 minutes, others will depart wishing they couldn’t.

The stakes could not be higher. Anything but defeat for Dundee rubberstamps their return to the Premiership, while only a win will do for Queen’s Park. Pre-match, manager Owen Coyle quite deliberately referenced the fact they have done that more times than any other Championship team this season, and that their opponents’ patchy away record may have the thousand-odd who have travelled from Tayside feeling a bit jittery.

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Their club’s plea that they do not do so without a ticket felt issued more in hope than anything else. Expectation hangs over their team, the favourites and in possession of a much greater familiarity with the top-flight than their rivals.

Queen’s Park have not graced the upper echelons of the game since 1958. But their decision to turn professional in 2019, complemented with considerable investment from Lord Willie Haughey, has been followed by the club scorching through the divisons at such velocity it has far outrun the pace of reconstruction works at their future home of Lesser Hampden.

That monetary element has soured things for many neutrals who may otherwise get behind this story, understandable when financial clout is so non-existent at this level of the game. But sitting among a fanbase tortured for so many years, it is hard not to get swept up in the occasion.

The buzz is undeniable – the TV cameras are here, half the country’s media, even Lawrence Shankland, honouring his Queen’s Park past with high-fives and selfies. Dundee manager Gary Bowyer has a win at Wembley on his CV, but this is unique as it comes.

A brief lull follows the players’ return to the dressing. What comes after is pure bedlam.

There’s an obvious edginess about Queen’s from kick-off; they fail to clear a percentage ball into the box, Malachi Boateng slips on his backside and in the blink of an eye Alex Jakubiak is sweeping home from inside 12 yards.

Off to the left, there are bodies everywhere in the Dundee end. The pyro follows, burning hot amid a suspicion Queen’s Park may have frozen.

Watching players look to each other for inspiration and find only blank expressions is, ironically, never particularly inspiring in the aftermath of conceding. Another cheap loss of possession has Dundee bearing down on a creaking Queen’s backline again, they bend this time but don’t break, their fans relaying pointed reminders that the game has, in fact, kicked off.

You just need something, anything to go for you when a game is threatening to career out of control like this. Something like, say, centre-back Charlie Fox lashing a bouncing ball into the top corner with his left foot from all of 30 yards.

Those are moments players dream about, but can’t really prepare for, and Fox’s semi-stunned celebration suggests even he cannot believe what has just happened. It is an incredible moment.

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Suddenly it is Dundee on the ropes, that stunning blow from nowhere leaving them punch-drunk enough to allow Connor Shields to lash Queen’s into the lead as the visitors fail to clear a corner.

It’s almost a bit too much to keep up with, so to give you a sense of where things are at this moment, a routine, run of the mill headed clearance from Fox elicits the same volume of cheer as his goal. There are Queen’s fans literally climbing the walls, and why not? For the first time in 65 years, their team are in the Premiership as things stand. That euphoria proves painfully brief.

Lost in that dizzying high, Queen’s have still not remembered they need to defend, as well. Again they fail to empty their box and Ryan Sweeney’s header across the box is converted on the volley by Lee Ashcroft.

There are just 17 minutes on the clock, by the way.

That goal swings the title pendulum Dundee’s way once more, the momentum on the night lurching with it. Even from the other end of the ground, you can hear Coyle pleading with his players to follow runners. They have shipped two incredibly soft goals and another soon follows, this time it’s Zach Robinson capitalising on yet more calamitous defending, the ball breaking to him after Fox fails to clear and a ricochet off Lee Kilday falls his way.

By now, the troubled looks on faces around the home end are matched only by mine; the reality that despite only 34 minutes being played there are serious concerns about excessive word count in this article suddenly dawning.

Those fears are not eased by Fox getting his head to Dom Thomas’ corner and the ball flying into the far corner. That’s of little to no concern for joyous, rejuvenated Queen’s fans, however, and leaves this already spectacular title decider on a knife-edge as the half-time whistle sounds after what feels like 30 seconds since kick-off.

The sound you can hear is everyone inside Ochilview taking a collective breather.

This occasion was always all or nothing for the home side, and yet it could have been a tense, cagey affair given what’s on the line. Any suspicion that this relentless drama might burn itself out at the interval are swiftly dispelled by Lyall Cameron and more slapstick Queen's defending.

It is actually quite polite of Dundee to continually offer them chances to clear before scoring, and equally so that Queen’s keep on turning it down. Aside from the obvious implications, the 20-year-old’s calm finish feels significant – how many times can Queen’s realistically get off the canvas before they’ve nothing left?

The answer becomes increasingly apparent as time draws wearily on, Dundee suddenly deciding that enough is enough and it’s time to solidify what they have, which is a ticket back to the promised land.

By now, all you can hear are their fans going through an extensive songbook. Queen’s Park continue to plug away but their cutting edge has deserted them, sucked out by too many body blows.

They are a club who did not expect to be on this stage so soon, but that does little to soothe their wounds as the party starts in the Dundee end. Only a quite incredible double save from Callum Ferrie, first from Jakubiak then Ben Williamson, stops them adding a fifth. The Spiders still have a lifeline via the play-offs, but this is a better setback to recover from so quickly.

In a league where everyone beats each other, there’s a lot to be said for just being steady, and Bowyer’s team have been exactly that. There was nothing level-headed about this 90 minutes, though, and it deserved a final flourish.

As Queen’s legs tired, Luke McCowan darts in off the right to fire an unstoppable effort into Ferrie’s far corner, and the roar that erupts behind the goal means only one thing.

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