Queen's Park 2, Airdrie 0: Spiders save their Championship status with a fine win

Queen's Park held onto their Championship status as they grabbed a vital win over Airdrie at Hampden this evening.

Ruari Paton's first-half strike and a second half bullet from sub Liam McLeish were enough to give the Spiders full points and keep Inverness in the relegation play-off slot.

For Airdrie, it means going into their Premiership play-off quarter-final against Partick Thistle next week on the back of a defeat.

Paton put Queen's Park ahead in 26 minutes and it was a deserved lead for the hosts, who looked the more threatening side.

Of course, they had much more riding on this, while Airdrie had the air of a side looking to get this game out of the way.

Paton should have doubled his tally and Queen's Park's lead early in the second half, and the hosts generally looked like the side more likely to score.

They did just that with eight minutes left as McLeish sent an angled shot ripping into the net.

Inverness, meanwhile, ended up just a point behind the Spiders as they beat 10-man Morton in the Highlands.

Perhaps with an eye on those play-off games, Airdrie boss Rhys McCabe made five changes to the side that drew 0-0 with champions Dundee United last Friday. Captain Adam Frizzell was back in, alongside Cammy Ballantyne, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, Murray Aiken and Calum Gallagher.

His Spiders counterpart Callum Davidson made one change to his side that thumped Arbroath 5-0 last time out, as Tommy Robson came in for Will Tizzard.

Airdrie created the first real chance in 11 minutes when Frizzell and Gallagher linked well, but Calum Ferrie read it well and saved at the Diamonds skipper's feet.

But Queen's nearly caught Airdrie napping in 15 minutes, with Paton nipping in to cut the ball back from the left bye-line, only