Queen’s Park advanced to the semi-finals of the Petrofac Training Cup with a narrow win over League Two rivals Elgin City at Hampden.

An early goal that was credited to John Carter and a second from Chris Duggan gave Gus MacPherson’s men a commanding half-time lead, although a counter by Darryl McHardy early in the second period made for a nervy end to the game for the Spiders.

The home side struck after just 3 minutes, when a corner from Jamie McKernon was cleared to full-back Craig McLeish on the edge of the area.

He fired a left-foot strike towards goal that seemed to take two deflections, the last of which saw Spiders striker Carter claiming the final touch before the ball flew into the net.

They doubled their lead after 18 minutes, when a wonderful run and cross by young right-back Tony Ralston gave Duggan a simple chance on the volley from 8 yards which he executed nicely.

David Galt should have put the game out of sight when another cross by on-loan Celtic kid Ralston presented him with a headed chance, but he glanced his effort agonisingly wide of the post.

Elgin keeper Mark Hurst’s handling of crosses suggested that someone may have basted his gloves before kick-off, and the rest of his teammates weren’t exactly making a decent fist of things either.

They finally produced a couple of decent moments as we approached half-time though, with left-winger Daniel Moore creating chances for Thomas Reilly and then Kyle MacLeod, but both were passed up.

Elgin finally got a response after the break, as a free-kick was lofted into the area by Archie McPhee. The home defence struggled to clear, and when the ball landed at the feet of McHardy with his back to goal he swivelled and finished high past William Muir to drag the visitors into the match with 50 minutes gone.

They almost equalised moments later as McPhee’s header looped over Muir, but Bryan Wharton got back behind his keeper to hook the ball off the goal-line.

Hurst then touched a long-range Vinnie Berry strike onto the post as the action swung from end to end, although despite the more even nature of the second-half, goalmouth action was harder to come by.

That suited Queen’s Park just fine, and they closed out the game to seal their place in the last four of the competition.