Queen's Park 0-0 PARS, Championship play-off semi-final, first leg

DUNFERMLINE face a fight to reach the Championship play-off final after they played out a disappointing scoreless draw at Queen's Park this evening.

This semi-final, first leg failed to sparkle as neither goalkeeper was seriously tested, with the Pars, and manager John Hughes, feeling the ire of a section of their sizeable travelling support.

The visitors, fighting to preserve their Championship status, struggled to dominate against their League One opponents, who were worthy of being level in the tie ahead of Saturday's East End return.

Kevin O'Hara had Athletic's only meaningful shot on goal, in the 67th minute, as for much of the night, their play lacked intensity, creativity and energy for large spells.

Although they were a bit better in the last half hour, they still needed to do more in attack, and Hughes will have much to think about ahead of Saturday's second leg, especially given the audible frustrations heard from the away support throughout the game.

There were two changes to the Pars starting line-up from the team beaten by Queen of the South on Friday.

Skipper Graham Dorrans and Ryan Dow came into the side, while Dan Pybus, who missed out completely, and Dom Thomas, who was named on tbe bench, dropped out.

For the hosts, ex-Par, Louis Longridge, started, while another, Stuart Morrison, was amongst the substitutes, as Peter Grant junior, son of the man Hughes succeeded in the East End dugout, was also in from the start.

A healthy travelling support had followed the team through to Glasgow but the meek nature of Dunfermline's second half collapse on Friday was fresh in their minds, and there was audible frustration early on as the Spiders started brightly.

They forced a couple of corners - one of which resulted from Efe Ambrose slicing a low ball into the box, under no pressure, high into the air, which forced Josh Edwards to head behind - but, although it came to nothing, cheap coughing up of possession by the visitors caused concern.

They did gradually begin to look more potent, though, as Dow was unfortunate not to make a more telling connection with a Matty Todd cross, after he had played a neat one-two with Steven Lawless, before O'Hara was put under enough pressure to prevent a clean strike after Todd nodded the ball down into his path.

In quick succession Lawless, from range, and O'Hara, after Dorrans did well under pressure to bring down a high ball, turn and release him, sent efforts wide of goal as the Pars began to probe more.

However, for the most part, the opening 45 minutes was a tough watch, with crosses sailing out of play, little goal chances offered, and a bumpy pitch - evidenced by a simple, five-yard pass by Joe Chalmers to Dorrans bouncing almost to chest height - all contributing to there being precious little excitement.

Towards the end of the half, Coll Donaldson took a sore one blocking an effort from range by Darren Lyon, after Longridge flicked the ball around Ambrose and into his path, but you could understand the few boos from the away end as the half-time whistle sounded.

It was an opening period that lacked intensity and energy and you desperately wanted Dunfermline to come out after the break with a renewed vigour and zest.

The early evidence after the restart was that they hadn't, with a Jake Davidson shot for Queen's Park - after he intercepted a poor Chalmers pass for Liam Polworth - that was saved by Jakub Stolarczyk the only real excitement inside the opening 10 minutes of the second period.

Josh Edwards did force Spiders keeper Calum Ferrie into action - albeit, it was an easy take - with a header after a Lawless centre caused a bit of havoc, but with that and the save at the other end being as good as the goalmouth action had been, it said much about how the first hour of this match had gone.

The visitors were, however, beginning to dictate the game, and in the 67th minute, O'Hara had their best opportunity until that point, firing a fine drive at Ferrie from the right-edge of the box, but the keeper did well to beat it away to safety.

The hosts blinked first in terms of substitutions, sending on Jai Quitongo - no stranger to a goal against the Pars during his time with Morton - and Jack Thomson for Longridge and Liam Brown, but O'Hara was almost in moments later.

A slip from a home defender allowed him to chase a through ball, but Ferrie did brilliantly to race from his line and block the danger before the Pars forward could get there.

O'Hara, though, was the first Dunfermline man sacrificed with 15 minutes to go, with Lewis McCann coming on in his place, but the swap did not go down well with the Athletic fans.

Moments later, Chalmers conceded a free-kick at the edge of the area by bringing down Quitongo, but another Spiders sub, Simon Murray, could only lift the ball over the bar, much to the visitors' relief.

They worked the ball neatly on the right late on, with Todd slipping in Polworth who took his time, pulled it back for Dorrans, but the ball was behind the midfielder, and he was slipping as he tried to shoot, meaning he couldn't get a clean strike away.

Match stats

Queen's Park: Ferrie, Davidson, Robson, Grant, Longridge (Quitongo 69), Lyon, McHugh (Murray 80), Brown (Thomson 69), Fox, Doyle, Smith.

Subs not used: Morrison, Moore, Longstaff, McBride, Darcy, Heraghty.

Pars: Stolarczyk, Todd, Ambrose, Donaldson, Edwards, Dow, Chalmers, Polworth, Lawless, Dorrans (Comrie 89), O'Hara (McCann 75).

Subs not used: Jones, Breen, Thomas, Todorov, Comrie, Martin, Kamwa, Mehmet.

Referee: Colin Steven.

Attendance: 1,403.