Hampden will be considerably fuller by the time the Scottish Cup is hosted at the national stadium in May, but it is doubtful whether either Queen’s Park or Ayr United ever held any serious chance of making it there.

But if the 52,000 odd that pack into the famous old ground on that day witness a similar sort of contest that those two teams produced in the cavernous bowl last night, there will be no complaints over the showpiece event to end the season.

It is Ayr who still have the slimmest of chances of returning here for the big day, as they march on to face either Stirling Albion or Clyde in the fifth round after emerging victorious on penalties, with spot-kick specialist Greg Fleming the hero again, saving twice.

A delightful early opener from Queen’s Park’s Paul Woods got things started before Craig Moore pulled Ayr level midway through the first-half.

Parity didn’t last long as Bryan Wharton moved the home side ahead again, before Conrad Balatoni squeezed in a late header to level things up again and send us to extra time.

Sean Burns was then sent off for the home side, before Gregor Fotheringham missed the crucial spot-kick to exit the cup in the cruellest of fashions.

The first meeting between the teams on Saturday that led to this replay ended goalless, but there was never any danger of this one going the same way.

Queen’s Park wasted no time in hitting the front, and it was a delightful piece of play from Anton Brady that opened up the Ayr defence just four minutes in.

The midfielder spun in the centre of the park and fed the ball wide to Burns, whose delivery found Woods in the area where he deftly flicked the ball beyond Greg Fleming and into the net.

Moore dragged Ayr level after 25 minutes, as Willie Muir’s poor kick landed at the feet of the striker, who drove at the heart of the home defence before finishing high past the Spiders keeper.

Harkins immediately missed a sitter to turn the game on its head, weaving his way into the area before dragging a left-foot effort wide from six yards.

He was made to pay for the miss just after the half hour as a Burns free-kick up the other end caused all sorts of problems for the Ayr defence before Fleming’s punch landed at the feet of Wharton, who did well to control his half-volley and cushion it into the roof of the net.

Play swung to the other end, and Moore should have had his second after being played in by Harkins, but Muir made amends for his earlier error as he stood tall to block.

The second period lacked the goalmouth action of the first, but it was still an interesting spectacle as Ayr tried to find a way through the home ranks and Queen’s Park tried to find a clincher on the break.

It looked as though Ayr had run out of ideas before they won a corner eight minutes from the end, with Balatoni meeting Paul Cairney’s floated delivery with a header that squirmed under Muir, and into extra time we went.

The card-happy official, who had flashed eight yellow cards during the 90 minutes, produced a ninth and a subsequent red for Queen’s Park’s Burns soon after the restart for a pull.

Ayr failed to make their numerical advantage count though, and it would take penalty kicks to separate the sides.

Ayr’s Cairney was the first to miss, putting his kick wide, before Bryan Wharton’s effort for Queen’s Park was saved by Fleming.

In sudden death, it was Fotheringham who was the unfortunate man to see Fleming guess right again and send Ayr into the next round.