There was no hard luck story from Arbroath manager Dick Campbell after his side went down to the last touch of the ball at Hampden.
The Lichties looked set to ease the threat of being involved in the end-of-season scramble for senior survival via the play-offs when Kane Hester cancelled out Paul Woods’ opener.
However, they were left empty-handed when former Arbroath man Ryan McGeever popped-up with a winner to keep the Gayfield men still looking over their shoulder at East Stirlingshire.
There were no excuses from Campbell, who said: “The first 15 minutes of the game was OK and we had a couple of chances but after that Queen’s Park took hold of things. They deserved to be ahead at the break.”
The honeymoon period between Campbell and his players brought about by the 3-0 success over East Stirlingshire the previous weekend is certainly over, with the Maroons boss adding: “I was angry at half time and the players saw the ugly side of me then.
“There was some enthusiasm lacking in the first half and I will not have that on my watch.”
Queen’s took the lead on 32 minutes when Woods darted towards the Arbroath goal and released Chris Duggan who looked set to fire at Allan Fleming only to return the ball to Woods who swept it high into the net.
Arbroath upped the tempo in the second half and Campbell’s side levelled on 54 minutes when half-time replacement Hester glanced home a Josh Skelly cross via a post.
Hester might have put the visitors ahead on two occasions only to be denied by goalkeeper Willie Muir before Queen’s won the game in injury time.