St Johnstone 0-1 Partick Thistle

Partick Thistle reached the Scottish Cup quarter-finals for the first time in nine years with their second win over St Johnstone in Perth this season.

Adam Barton gave Thistle an early lead when he side-footed home a Steven Lawless cross after a swift counter.

Saints went close via Richard Foster and Danny Swanson, but needed a superb Zander Clark save to deny David Amoo.

Steven MacLean, Blair Alston and Chris Kane all had second-half chances but Thistle held their nerve to progress.

Having won 2-1 in Perth in the Premiership in October, this was the fifth successive meeting between the sides won by the away team.

Partick have gone 406 minutes without scoring a league goal but it took just seven minutes of this Scottish Cup tie for them to make the breakthrough at one of their favourite grounds.

Barton provided the final touch for his second goal of the season with an astute side-footed finish after Sean Welsh and Lawless carved open the Saints defence down the left side.

It was no more than the Jags deserved for a high-intensity first-half performance that did not allow the hosts to settle, while allowing Thistle to break forward at pace.

In fact they really should have gone in at the interval with a more comfortable lead as Ade Azeez saw a shot deflected wide by Joe Shaughnessy and Amoo was only denied by a brilliant Clark save.

Adam Barton produced a smart finish for his second goal of the season

St Johnstone found it difficult to negotiate their way through a well-drilled back three where Danny Devine played between the on-loan Niall Keown and Liam Lindsay.

Swanson went close with a couple of long-range efforts before the break while MacLean volleyed over the bar just after it as the hosts started to show more urgency.

Thistle continued to carry a real threat themselves though and Welsh fizzed a shot narrowly wide before setting up Lindsay for a great opportunity with a wickedly flighted free-kick on the hour mark.

Once again the impressive Clark rescued his side with a great block and Amoo saw his shot from the rebound blocked by Saints skipper Steven Anderson.

Alston was only inches away from a leveller with a shot that swerved narrowly wide of the far post, while fellow substitute Kane hooked an acrobatic effort just over the bar as they failed to dig out a replay.

Tommy Wright was unhappy with referee Craig Thomson during the home defeat by Celtic last week and he appeared similarly unimpressed with Steven McLean's decisions at times during this game either.

However that was an indication of what a good job Thistle's players did in frustrating opponents who have struggled to put away teams from the bottom six at home during the current campaign.

Post-match reaction:

Partick Thistle match-winner Adam Barton: "It's great to get another goal but the important thing is we got the win to get through to the quarter-finals.

"The good thing is that we did score because we have been playing well in recent weeks but the ball hasn't been going in the net and even today we had three or four good chances.

"Now we need to knuckle down and make sure we get more goals because we want to make sure we start winning more league matches."

Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald: "I think we deserved the win. We started brightly after making a number of changes and a change of shape as well so I was really pleased.

"It's all about scoring when you are on top in games and we did that even though it would have been easier if we had taken one or two of the other ones we made.

"Zander Clark made a couple of wonder saves as he always seems to do against us but we worked our goal really well."

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright: "It's never nice to lose in any cup competition but we lost that game in the first 20 minutes.

"I don't think we started the game very well. It was about 18 minutes before we made a tackle.

"Second half we were better and made some decent chances but we were always vulnerable to the counter-attack from Partick, which they did very well. Overall we didn't do enough to win the game."