Disappointed St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright admitted losing to Kilmarnock was hard to take.
The rejuvenated Rugby Park side scored early through Craig Slater to secure their place in Monday’s fifth round draw with a 1-0 win in Perth.
Saints have now failed to find the net in their last four games but Wright noted that they carved out plenty of chances.
He said: “You have to play for 90 minutes and we didn’t do that, so in one way you could say we got what we deserved.
“Only Murray Davidson and David Wotherspoon showed anything about them to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
“But we dominated and had all the chances we needed in the last 15 minutes to not only draw the game but possibly go on and win it.
“(Killie keeper) Jamie MacDonald’s saves were horrible.
“I thought there were two but the lads have told me there were three. It is incredible.
“But it’s not luck because keepers work at that and he has won the cup-tie for them with that piece of brilliance.
“Of course we are disappointed but we will dust ourselves down and get going again.”
Delighted Killie manager Gary Locke singled out goalkeeper MacDonald for special praise.
MacDonald worked wonders in stoppage-time with a triple save to frustrate skipper Dave Mackay and substitutes John Sutton and Graham Cummins.
Locke said: “They had to throw everything at us because it is the cup.
“If you don’t get a result you are out so to be fair to Tommy – he threw everybody forward.
“But Jamie has done that on a consistent basis all season.
“If there is a better goalkeeper in the Premiership then I have yet to see him.
“He hasn’t had too many saves to make but that’s why I brought him here.
“I know the quality he has and they were fantastic saves but I thought we deserved to win.
“Quite rightly two or three weeks back we got a bit of criticism but we have responded and a couple of decent results over the Christmas period have given the lads a bit of confidence.
“Attacking-wise we looked dangerous and defensively we looked the team I expect us to be.
“I’m really pleased but won’t get too carried away.
“You have to play well to win here because they are flying high.”