Hamilton Academical 0 - 1 St Mirren: Graham Carey strike sees Saints through this time

Billy Reid’s men put up a decent fight at New Douglas Park and had their opponents anxiously defending the lead at times. However, the First Division outfit crashed out as their SPL visitors held on for the win to earn a home meeting with Ross County in the next round.

Hamilton had a great chance to open the scoring early on when Dougie Imrie nicked in to steal the ball from the grasp of goalkeeper Craig Samson and set up the shot for Jim McAlister who lashed wide of the upright.

The visitors gradually began to impose themselves upon the match and David van Zanten was not too far away with a powerful shot from 20 yards. The original tie had ended in goalless stalemate but the replay served up a goal after 21 minutes.

It was Saints who surged into the lead when Carey unleashed from the edge of the box and sent a firm low shot past goalkeeper Tomas Cerny and into the bottom corner.

Accies emerged for the second half determined to haul themselves back into the tie and Dundee United target Imrie was unfortunate not to find the back of the net with a swerving effort that fell wide.

With 20 minutes to go, Hamilton knew there was still time to rescue the tie and Lee Kilday he saw his close-range header smothered on the line by Samson before the keeper also claimed a bullet header from Accies top goalscorer Mark Mark McLaughlin. Only the woodwork prevented Hamilton from drawing level with just three minutes to go when an audacious 35-yard strike from Imrie crashed off the post before the Saints defence frantically cleared the danger and held on for the win.

Hamilton: Cerny, Kilday, Canning, McLaughlin, Hendrie, Mensing, McAlister, Crawford, A Ryan (Martin 72), Anderson (Spence 71), Imrie. Subs not used: Hutton, Gordon, Devlin.

St Mirren: Samson, Van Zanten, McAusland, Mair, Tesselaar, McLean, Barron, McGowan, Teale, Thompson, Carey (Thomson 86). Subs not used: Smith, Murray, Hasselbaink, Mooy.