Dundee United are through to the quarter-finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup thanks to this ultimately hard-fought win over St Mirren.
The Tangerines absolutely cruised the first half and went into the break two goals to the good after strikes from Pavol Safranko and Nicky Clark.
The home side came back into it in the second 45 after Calum Butcher was sent off with the Buddies then scoring through Duckens Nazon to ensure a nervy finish.
However, the visitors held on and will be in the hat for Monday’s draw.
Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson made just one change from the team that started against Morton in the league last week with Jamie Robson coming in at left-back in place of Callum Booth while it was a quickfire return to the club he left in January for Cammy Smith.
St Mirren manager Oran Kearney’s team was captained by former Dundee defender Paul McGinn.
The Tangerines, with brilliant backing from a 1,500-strong travelling support, made a good start to the game, passing the ball well against their Premiership opponents.
And it was no surprise when United took the lead in the 15th minute.
Home keeper Vaclav Hladky made two saves in quick succession to deny Clark and Safranko but when the ball was fired back into the box by Peter Pawlett, Safranko was on hand once more to divert the strike into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Safranko had another chance as he raced through on goal but the keeper did enough to deny him.
Pawlett then tried to pounce on some St Mirren defensive slackness but Hladky came to the rescue once more for the home side.
As the half edged to a conclusion, it seemed United would only have the one goal to show for their overall dominance but in the 45th minute, they doubled their advantage when Clark sent a sublime lobbed effort over Hladky and into the back of the net.
St Mirren, no doubt with a few choice words ringing in their ears from their manager, made a better fist of things at the start of the second half.
McGinn was incredibly lucky to escape with just a yellow card in the 58th minute when he caught Smith with an elbow with the same St Mirren player then drawing a save from United keeper Benjamin Siegrist with a shot from 18 yards.
However, there was a dismissal just four minutes later. United’s Butcher went in high on St Mirren’s Ryan Flynn with Mr Collum this time reaching into his pocket before flashing a straight red card at the midfielder.
The Buddies almost capitalised on their one-man advantage straight away when Mihai Popescu cracked a shot off the underside of the United bar before the ball was cleared for a corner.
However, the home side did pull one back in the 77th minute when a shot from the edge of the United box by Nazon was deflected past Siegrist.
As the clock ticked down, Neilson became increasingly animated on the touchline urging his team forward with sub Osman Sow almost making it three in stoppage time.
And as the final whistle blew, it was the away support celebrating wildly.
