Hamilton Academical 0-3 St Mirren: Jim Goodwin's men ease through
- Published
Highlights: Hamilton Acad 0-3 St Mirren
St Mirren gained revenge for their Premiership heartbreak as they knocked out Hamilton Academical to reach the Scottish Cup fourth round.
A Hamilton equaliser denied the Paisley side a top-six finish two weeks ago.
But Jamie McGrath's double - a sublime early strike and late penalty either side of Kristian Dennis' long-range curler - sent St Mirren through.
David Moyo wasted Hamilton's best chance of an equaliser before they succumbed in the final 15 minutes.
St Mirren learn their next opponents when the draw for the fourth and fifth rounds takes place on Sunday.
Having had to stew on their Premiership near miss, St Mirren's pent-up frustration poured out in a blazing start.
They were ahead just four minutes in with McGrath's 12th goal of the season. The Irishman can't have scored many better as he collected an Ilkay Durmus cross on the left of the penalty box, took a touch then nonchalantly lofted the ball over goalkeeper Ryan Fulton into the far corner of the net.
He almost added a quickfire second, driving through the middle to force a save from Fulton, before Conor McCarthy blasted over the bar and Jon Obika dragged a shot as Jim Goodwin's men threatened to put the tie out of sight.
Accies hung on, with Fulton's face coming to their rescue from Obika's close-range strike.
When the hosts finally mustered an effort on goal, it would brought them level had Jak Alnwick not acrobatically tipped over Lee Hodson's rasping drive.
Ross Callachan dragged wide shortly before half-time, and his cross teed up fellow forward Moyo for an awful miss with a free header after the restart.
That proved costly when substitute Dennis bent a brilliant 25-yard strike into the top corner to double St Mirren's lead.
The visitors were indebted to goalkeeper Alnwick for turning behind a goal-bound Jamie Hamilton header, before McGrath wrapped it up from the spot after Obika was upended by Fulton.
What did they say?
Hamilton head coach Brian Rice: "We dominated after the first 20 minutes. It's never a 3-0 game. We created really good chances and missed a brilliant one at 1-0 down with Moyo's header.
"We lose another penalty and don't get many breaks."
St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin: "We suffered real disappointment here a couple of weeks ago and it would have been easy to let our season fizzle out.
"We started really well and were in control. The goal was a real bit of class from McGrath, who has shown that most of the season. I have to congratulate my players, we knew how difficult it would be."