SPFL Trust Trophy round three: Cliftonville 2 Queen’s Park 3; Buckie Thistle 1 Linfield 2
THE challenge of Championship side Queen’s Park proved too much for Cliftonville yesterday as they bowed out of the Scottish Challenge Cup after a five-goal thriller at Solitude.
It couldn’t have got off to a worse start for the Reds as they were behind inside the first five minutes, Queen’s Park breaking from a Jamie McDonagh corner and Grant Savoury making no mistake from the edge of the box. However, less than 10 minutes later, the hosts were level as Colin Coates rose highest to meet a corner and head home.
Queen’s Park played themselves back into the game after this and, approaching the 30-minute mark, a deft pass put Scott Williamson through to bury into the Cliftonville net.
That’s the way it remained at the break, but less 10 minutes after the restart Cliftonville were level again when Jonny Addis converted at the second time of asking from a Ronan Hale cross.
But Queen’s Park weren’t to be denied an away day victory and got the winner when Dom Thomas fired home after a frantic scramble on the edge of the Cliftonville box.
On Saturday, 10-man Linfield came from behind to beat Buckie Thistle 2-1.
With the Blues' Chris Shields sent-off after 34 minutes in Buckie, Marcus Goodall put the Highland League side ahead shortly after the break. However, two Linfield goals within a minute from Joel Cooper and Niall Quinn turned the game in the final quarter
