by Alan Gallacher at Somerset Park

DANNY Lennon hailed his team's passage into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup and insisted we should all look ahead with excitement to tomorrow's draw.

He said: "We knew it would be a difficult one. It was a great wee atmosphere and our fans were fantastic.

"We got off to a flyer with an opportunistic strike from Dargo, and this gave us the belief to go on and have a good first half. We didn't give them any encouragement.

"We got a second goal with a great counter attack and the wee man (Craig Dargo) finished it off.

"Even at 2-0 it was never done. Two-nil is funny. They got a wee bit of fortune with a penalty, but Craig had missed two good chances and Michael Higdon had a chance.

"Goals change games, but we hoped the players would keep doing the good things they were doing and not let it change the pattern of the game."

One aspect of the afternoon the manager was asked about was the reaction of the travelling support to the removal of goal hero Dargo when sections of the support showed their disapproval of the move. He said: "We thought they were starting to control the middle of the park so we took Dargo off.

"He had been caught offside four or five times, which is a sign of fatigue, and you could see he was starting to suck in a little bit. I can understand the fans frustrations though as he was a threat and had worked his socks off."

The first half challenge of Michael Higdon on former-Saint, Eddie Malone. Many thought the striker deserved a straight red for the incident; Lennon however was not one of them.

He said: "I certainly thought it was worthy of a yellow card. No more. I saw a worse tackle than that at Easter Road during the week when we played there. It was a typical striker's tackle, worth a yellow but certainly not red."

With Rangers meeting Celtic it means one of the supposed big two has to fall at this hurdle leaving the way clear for someone to go all the way to Hampden. Something Lennon acknowledged.

He said; "Absolutely, yeah one of the Old Firm has to go, we know this and it gives us all a good opportunity of progressing. We will, I am sure, all sit down and watch the cup draw with great interest tomorrow as it will be exciting."

Ayr United manager, Brian Reid said of the game: "Our plans go out the window when we lose a goal in the first six minutes, and then right on the stroke of half time.

"We are disappointed as it gives us an uphill battle by losing two cheap goals as we really thought the game was there for the taking. We shot ourselves in the foot as the early goal would have settled any nerves they had coming down here.

"We were right down to the bare bones and could have got an equaliser. We had kids from the academy and look at the depth St Mirren had on their bench."

Reid also gave his take on the Higdon challenge, and hinted he thought he got away lightly with only a caution saying; "I am not one of those managers who want to see players sent off and I thought the referee had a decent game. We had a player sent off for something similar in our last game.

"So on another day maybe he could have been off the park and we might have won. But that didn't lead to us losing the goals that we did and that was the disappointing thing."

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