Thumbs up for St Mirren advancing

Thumbs down for another Kelty upset aginst top-flight Saints

Thumbs up Partick Thistle beating top-flight opposition

Thumbs down for Dundee United following up their midweek week victory with Cup progresson

Thumbs up for Motherwell winning

Thumbs down for a Dons away win in the cup

Thumbs up Motherwell in this all Premiership clash

Thumbs down for Martindale's Livi to get the job done

Get ready to have your say on how you reckon this weekend's Scottish Cup games will go.

(No replays in the fifth round so all ties will be decided on the day)🏆

Dundee's midweek win at Tynecastle ended a run of nine league games without a victory and lifted James McPake’s side above St Johnstone and off the foot of the table ahead of Monday’s Scottish Cup trip to Peterhead.

“It was a good feeling because it was our first win in a long time,” said Mullen. “It’s given us a lift but we’ll take one game at a time. Hopefully, we can take confidence from that and get a wee run going now.

“In games in the past we’ve maybe only showed up for one half but against Hearts we were there for the full game. Even though we went behind we had the belief all the way through the game that we could get something.

“To go there and put in the performance we did, it’s positive signs. We enjoyed it but we’re now working towards our cup game on Monday.”

Danny Mullen believes he and recent signing Zak Rudden can forge a strong strike partnership and fire Dundee to Premiership survival.

Rudden joined from Partick Thistle last month after hitting nine goals in the first half of the season, and he opened his account for his new club on his first start against Ross County last weekend.

Mullen scored one and forced an own goal off Toby Sibbick in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Hearts on a night when both forwards caused the hosts problems.

“The partnership was good against Hearts,” he said. “We troubled the defence from start to finish. Me going short, Zak in behind and sometimes the other way about.

“At times their defence didn’t know how to deal with it. To go to Tynecastle and do that against a top side, it was a good feeling.

“We’ve brought in good signings so hopefully everyone can chip in and at the end of the season we can look back on a good January transfer window.”

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Hearts face Livingston in the Scottish Cup on Saturday and Kingsley knows it is imperative they do not fall flat in a competition that means a lot to the supporters.

“We need to get to grips with what’s happened, move on and put it right on Saturday, because that’s a big chance to do well in the cup,” he said. “We need to get ourselves sorted and get going again for that.

“You always have that chance to put it right. We’ve got standards here and they’ve not been where we want them to be, so thankfully there’s another game on Saturday, which we’ll need to be up for and apply the things we’ve not done right.”

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Stephen Kingsley admits Hearts fans had every right to vent their fury at the end of their “embarrassing” defeat by Dundee.

The Tynecastle side are third in the Scottish Premiership but supporters were furious after seeing Sunday’s 5-0 defeat away to Rangers followed up by a 2-1 home loss to a James McPake's side.

Dundeee were bottom of the table prior to their victory at Tynecastle on Wednesday.

Boos and angry shouts rained down on the players and manager Robbie Neilson after they squandered a 1-0 half-time lead.

“The fans are entitled to be angry, absolutely,” said defender Kingsley. “We hold ourselves accountable. We have standards of our own and we know what the standards of the club are, what the fans expect from us and it was an embarrassing result for us against a team bottom of the table.

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“We know the levels we can hit and there were times in the first half where we created some chances, but when you concede two goals like that in the second half and lose at Tynecastle to the side bottom of the table, it’s just not good enough for this club, or for the levels that we hold here in this squad.”

“But we never lose sight of the fact we have good players. I played for 24 seasons and I can guarantee it wasn’t 24 glory-filled seasons. A lot of them were grinds and they were difficult and you had to fight your way through it.

“But I found that managers had trust in me that eventually we would come good and I would come good and that’s the case with my players.

“A lot of them we have brought to the club, a lot of them we have kept at the club because I trust them and I know they are good players.

“But we are in a division with a lot of giants in Scottish football and I think we have competed really well with them for a year.

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“But we are going to have difficult moments. We are quite clear with that before we even kicked a ball. We make pre-season difficult so we know who are the characters that will come through.

“This is the moment you see the personality and character of your players. In periods like this you learn more about yourself, your club, your players and that’s how you step forward.

“You take the hits, you fail, you come back, you keep fighting and you get success in the end. That fight will never go from me, it will never go from my players, or my team or my squad, or this club.”

“I think we are creating as many chances as we did previously, but we’re not taking advantage of those chances. Tony, in that period, for us, was taking advantage of those chances.

“It’s quite clear. It would be silly for to say it’s a lazy argument. It’s not. It could be any player who has been a significant part of what you are doing, when they are missing there’s going to be an adjustment period.

“That’s what we have to do, we have to adjust. We have lost a certain type of player and haven’t got a direct replacement in how he plays so we have to adjust our game for whoever is going to play in those positions.

“That’s where we are finding those adjustments but we are still creating chances and the stats tell us that.”

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Alexander added: “It’s why strikers get the most money, because they do the most important thing and that’s score goals.

“Other players have to take that responsibility, and I’m talking about midfielders who break into the box, defenders who go up for set-pieces, which we are not taking advantage of.

“We have to find that adjustment quickly but we have players who will score goals.

Motherwell bounced back strongly from a difficult October when they took one point from five games.

“The key was we analyse things, we put things in perspective, we find what we can control out of those results and try to effect that and work to improve on it.”

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander accepts losing Tony Watt has influenced their results – but he is convinced they will soon adjust to the departure of their top goalscorer.

'Well went into the winter break in fourth place in the Premiership but then sold Watt to Dundee United after the forward signed a pre-contract at Tannadice on the back of hitting nine league goals.

Six league games in 2022 have yielded just two goals and two points, with the Steelmen’s latest defeat coming after Watt netted his first United goal in a 2-0 home win.

Alexander admitted the transfer window was a “destabilising” period and could not argue with the assessment they have been missing Watt’s goals.

“It’s not a lazy argument, he was the top scorer in the Premiership,” said Alexander ahead of Saturday’s Scottish Cup fifth-round tie against Aberdeen at Fir Park.

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As well as standing in for injured captain Paul Hanlon, Stevenson was back in central midfield amid the absence of Joe Newell and Kyle Magennis and following the departures of Alex Gogic and Melker Hallberg.

“It’s just one of those things -we’ve had a lot of injuries in key positions so people need to fill in and do a job where they can,” said the 34-year-old defender.

“I’m happy to play anywhere. I’ve played there before, although it has been a while.

“Rangers are probably strongest in midfield so we didn’t see a lot of the ball but I think I defended all right. Maybe I should have been better on the ball at times, but it does take a bit of getting used to, especially at Ibrox.”

“I know a few of them from when we played in the Championship so I know it’s going to be a tough game – a different kind of game to Rangers, but just as hard.

“They’re flying, they score a lot of goals, and it’s going to be a battle. We need to roll our sleeves up.

“It’s a must-win game. Nothing else matters apart from this game and it will maybe take our mind off the league for a wee bit, being able to focus on the cup.

“We just need to roll the sleeves up and start taking our chances.”

Stand-in Hibernian captain Lewis Stevenson has called for his team to show their character when they take on surprise package Arbroath in the Scottish Cup.

Hibs arguably landed one of the toughest assignments in the fifth round when they were handed a trip to Gayfield to face the part-timers who extended their lead at the top of the Championship to five points on Wednesday.

Hibs have yet to win a league match in 2022 after going down 2-0 against Rangers on Wednesday and needed a solitary extra-time goal to see off Cove Rangers in the fourth round.

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Stevenson knows many people will be looking out for a cup upset on Sunday.

“Oh, totally, I’m sure that’s why it got put on the telly,” he said. “But that’s why you need big characters.

“I’ve played in a lot of these games in the past and touch wood we’ve come out on top in most of them.

“We have to win it. It might be dirty, it might be a horrible win, a 1-0 scraped win, or we might play really well. But all we’re focusing on is getting a result.

“They’re flying, they’ve been winning all season. I’ve never actually played there but I’ve obviously seen them on the telly a few times this season, and they’ve got good players, good attacking players."

The Dons now bid to kick-start their campaign with a Scottish Cup win at Motherwell on Saturday.

“It’s massive,” Ferguson said. “We set our aims at the start of the season and cup runs are big for this club.

“Hopefully we go put on a winning performance to get into the next round.

“There were a lot of positives in that second-half performance. We got two goals and were really aggressive.

“It was much, much better and we have to take that performance into the weekend and start the game like that.”

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Ferguson also thought he should have had a penalty when Matt O’Riley jumped into him at a high ball.

“I felt as if the boy wasn’t really looking at the ball or making an attempt to play the ball,” the midfielder said.

“I think he was just trying to put his body into me.

“I think if it’s anywhere else on the park it is probably a foul. In the penalty area, it’s not a foul – it’s one of those ones.”