Motherwell went crashing out of the Scottish Cup fourth round as Premiership bottom side St Johnstone ran out slender winners at McDiarmid Park.
Makenzie Kirk’s early strike was enough to send the Perth side through to the fifth round draw on Monday.
Kirk put St Johnstone ahead in nine minutes and it was no more than the hosts deserved, having started the more aggressive of the sides.
Motherwell didn’t offer much up front, while Saints got their goal but were unable to add to it in the first half, mostly through poor finishing, chief amongst them former Hearts and Hamilton Accies striker Kirk.
The visitors put up more of a fight in the second half, but without really testing Saints keeper Andy Fisher, and limped out of the competition with a whimper.
St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari made five changes to the side that lost to Rangers at the weekend. Victor Griffith, Jason Holt, Graham Carey, Barry Douglas and Sam Curtis came in, at the expense of Aaron Essel, Fran Franczak, Maksym Kucheriavyi, Nicky Clark and Ben Kimpioka.
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell made four alterations to his side that lost at Hibs on Saturday. Sam Nicholson makes his first start since the last game of season 2023/24, and Dan Casey, Marvin Kaleta and Tawanda Maswanhise were in for Stephen O’Donnell, Paul McGinn, Tom Sparrow and Tony Watt.
Motherwell threatened in four minutes when the ball bounced around the Saints box from an Andy Halliday corner on the right, with Marvin Kaleta’s overhead kick attempt landing on top of the goal-net.
St Johnstone took the lead in nine minutes when from a corner on the right Griffith had a header well parried by Archie Mair at the near post but Kirk reacted fastest to ram in the rebound.
Motherwell carved a decent chance in 22 minutes when good work by Sam Nicholson sent Tawanda Maswanhise through on goal, but his low shot was comfortably held by Andy Fisher.
Kirk was sent through on the right in 29 minutes, but with Griffith in support, fired a low, angled shot past the left post.
St Johnstone had a penalty claim in 37 minutes when Curtis went down under a challenge from Kofi Balmer, but it looked like the right call.
The hosts should have doubled their lead in 42 minutes when Sven Sprangler’s cross from the left reached Graham Carey, who fired wildly over from a good position.
Kirk was given another chance to run through on goal in first-half stoppage time, but fired well over the bar.
Motherwell were given a real let-off in 49 minutes when Drey Wright made his way down the right and his cut-back was just too far ahead of Kirk in the middle, when a touch would have done.
Carey nearly doubled their lead in 55 minutes with a curling effort that smacked off the left post.
ST JOHNSTONE: Fisher, Curtis, Sanders, Mikulic, Douglas, Wright, Sprangler, Griffith, Holt, Carey (Clark, 66), Kirk (Kimpioka, 66)
Subs (not used): Sinclair (GK), Raymond, Sidibeh, Kucheriavyi, Steven, Franczak
Booked: Griffiths (57), Kimpioka (90+3)
MOTHERWELL: Mair, Kaleta, Balmer, Blaney, Casey (O’Donnell, 46), Wilson, Halliday, Andrews (Sparrow, 46), Nicholson (Slattery, 68), Maswanhise (Moses, 74), Vale (Watt, 74)
Subs (not used): McConnell (GK), Zdravkovski, Koutroumbis
Booked: Blaney (51), Sparrow (63)
Referee: John Beaton
Attendance: 3872