Doing The Double

We'll get to the Rapids first win tomorrow, but this morning Queen of the South completed the double by beating 1st Division leaders Partick Thistle in the Ramsdens Cup final.  This was the League Challenge Cup open to teams from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions.  Queens won 6-5 on penalties after 120 minutes ended with the teams level at 1 apiece.

The 90 minutes ended 0-0, then the Doonhamers scored in the 101st minute.  They gave up a PK in the 118th minute, only to save it in the 119th which sparked a melee int he box that ended with a Partick player seeing red.  The referee added time on after the festivites and in the added time Partick Thistle found the equalizer to force penalties.  After Queens saved Partick's first penalty but missed their own 2nd penalty everybody made their spot kicks until the 7th round when Queens was on target and the QoS goalkeeper came up with his 3rd PK save in 15 minutes to seal the deal.

This is Queen of the South's 2nd win in the 22 years of the competition and 4th final appearance.  The latter is tied with Ross County, Hamilton Academical, and Falkirk for the most appearances and they are now one of 6 teams to have won it multiple times.  Falkirk has won all 4 of its appearances in the final, and the now-defunct Airdrieonians won it 3 times before folding at the end of the 2001-02 season.  Last time Queens won the Cup was in 2002.  At the end of the 2001-2002 season Queens won the 2nd Division and were promoted and that fall they won the Cup (the whole competition was played in the fall then instead of holding the final for the spring) giving them an "unofficial" double of winning both competitions in the same calendar year.  Now they've officially done the double, winning both competitions in the same season.