League Cup round-up: Both Saints go marching on into cup quarter-finals

Published on Tuesday 22 September 2009 19:43

ST JOHNSTONE gained sweet and swift revenge for their SPL defeat at Easter Road on Saturday as they returned to Leith to knock John Hughes's side out of the Co-operative Insurance Cup with a 3-1 win.

The victory was made all the more remarkable by the fact that Hibs had taken the lead after 45 seconds. Anthony Stokes, who put two past the Perth side in the 3-0 league win, was on the mark again, but Gavin Swankie equalised in seven minutes, before second-half goals from Chris Millar and Jody Morris sent Derek McInnes' side into the quarter-finals.

Hibs' misery was typified by a Derek Riordan penalty miss, which came in the first half with the teams still locked at 1-1.

St Johnstone will be joined in the hat for the quarter-final draw by their fellow Saints, St Mirren, who recorded a dramatic 2-1 win against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Substitute Andy Dorman snatched a last-gasp victory after Kilmarnock had staged a comeback. Stephen McGinn thought he had grabbed the winner for Saints, but there was plenty of drama to come when Kevin Kyle's late leveller for the home side looked set to force the tie into extra-time. However, it was Dorman – who came off the bench after an hour – who had the final say when he claimed the decisive goal in stoppage-time.

Meanwhile. Dundee United enjoyed a smooth passage into the last eight, beating Ross County 2-0 in Dingwall thanks to goals in each half from Lee Wilkie and Johnny Russell.

The other two ties between Dundee and Aberdeen, and Motherwell and Inverness both headed into extra time. Dundee had been pegged back to 2-2 after taking a 2-0 lead, while Well let their lead slip away as First Division Inverness made it 1-1 after 90 minutes.