Arbroath hammered Queen of the South 5-2 to move a step closer to promotion.

Queen of the South took the lead after just two minutes through Mark Angel, but the home side hit back with strikes from Steve Mallan just before half-time and Paul Brownlie the other side of the interval.

Colin McInnon put Arbroath 3-1 up after 65 minutes before an own goal by Philip Nixon added to the visitors' woes five minutes later.

Brownlie made the points safe with his second goal 11 minutes from the end and Alan Hogg's goal in the 90th minute was merely a consolation for Queens.

The result extended Arbroath's unbeaten league run to 12 games and set them up nicely for a crunch meeting with Stranraer on Sunday.

The Doonhamers, who have had a fine run recently, were disappointing and simply bowled over by a fine Arbroath performance.