DUNFERMLINE 2 El Alagui (48, 62) QUEEN’S PARK 1 El Alagui og (69)

DUNFERMLINE continued their recent revival by reaching the Irn-Bru Cup quarter-finals but a largely unconvincing display contained little of the fizz associated with the sponsor’s iconic product.

Two weeks after ending a five-game losing run by edging St Mirren in a sevengoal televised thriller, the Fifers found it unexpectedly difficult to dispose of League 1 strugglers Queen’s Park.

One thing stayed the same, however – Farid El Alagui came off the bench to grab the winner against the Paisley men, and he was at it again yesterday, scoring twice for the Pars and also adding an own goal at the other end to set up a nervy final 20 minutes.

“Bringing Farid on gave us a physical presence, particularly in the air, and it gave us goals, too,” said Pars boss Allan Johnston.

“We can play a lot better than that, especially in the first half, and we probably made it more difficult than we needed to but getting the result is the most important thing.”

The substitute broke the deadlock barely three minutes after replacing Gavin Reilly at the end of a dire first half.

Joe Cardle forced visiting keeper Willie Muir into a fingertip save and earning his side a corner which El Alagui drilled past a hesitant Spiders’ defence.

Queen’s Park then enjoyed their best spell of the game and Darren Miller was desperately unlucky to see his inswinging corner clawed away by home keeper Sean Murdoch after the ball had almost certainly crossed the goal-line.

El Alagui’s second goal looked to have settled the tie but the former Hibs and Falkirk striker handed the underdogs hope when he headed a visitors’ corner into his own net.