Partick Thistle progressed to the fifth round of the Scottish Cup as they eventually capitalised on their dominance to sweep aside a largely tame St Mirren outfit at the Paisley 2021 Stadium.

After a first-half that was shorter on incident than the live feed from the Celebrity Big Brother house, the second period finally saw the Premiership side make their dominance pay.

Dan Seaborne got the opening goal just after the hour, smashing home a loose ball in the area after St Mirren had failed to deal with a Stuart Bannigan corner.

The home side failed to heed the warning though, and ten minutes later another Bannigan delivery allowed David Amoo to finish on the rebound after Kris Doolan’s acrobatic volley had crashed off the bar.

Keith Watson grabbed a late life-line for Saints, but there was to be no late leveller as the Firhill side deservedly left with the win.

There was a surreal feel to the build-up as mascots Paisley Panda and Kingsley faced off in a race, and then Colin Montgomerie of all people turned up in Paisley to take his seat for the match.

If moving the game to the Friday night had captured the imagination of the eight-time European Tour order of merit winner, it had sadly escaped the Paisley public with large sections of the home end lying vacant. The visiting support were here in numbers though, and their side were visibly boosted by this as they started the match on the front-foot.

For all their early possession though, there was little action at either end until 20 minutes in when Thistle broke through Bannigan. The midfielder fed Stevie Lawless who evaded two weak challenges before playing in David Amoo who squared for Doolan, but the striker just failed to steer the ball on target on the stretch.

That was about the sum of things until just before half-time, with the pattern of Thistle retaining the ball but struggling to breach a packed and well-organised home defence well and truly set. That was until a few minutes before the interval as Amoo showed wonderful skill on the left to cut inside two St Mirren defenders and unleash a right-foot effort on-target that Jamie Langfield did well to beat away.

Like Monty in his heyday though, the fare on offer in the opening period was consistently below-par, with both sides choking as they reached the opposing box like the big man from Troon on the Sunday of a major.

The second-half started at a brighter clip, and hope was on offer that the game might be sparking to life as Lawless threaded a ball to Doolan with his back to goal on the edge of the area in the opening minutes. The striker took a touch before spinning and sending a curling effort inches wide of the top corner with Langfield scrambling across his goal.

A great break from Thistle then led to the opening goal. Bannigan drove at the home rear-guard and found Amoo who cut inside and had a shot that was deflected just wide by Jack Baird. From the corner, St Mirren failed to clear Bannigan’s delivery and Seaborne pounced on the loose ball to force it over the line through Langfield with 62 minutes gone.

Liam Lindsay then got his head to another Bannigan corner, but the effort was straight at Langfield who collected on this occasion.

There was a feeling that sooner or later St Mirren would have to show at least a degree of ambition to get back into the tie, but before they could alter their mind-set they were two down, and again it was a Bannigan corner that did the damage.

This time Seaborne got his head to the delivery, glancing the ball to the back post area where Doolan spectacularly volleyed the ball off the underside of the bar. Amoo was the first to react, taking a touch before finishing past the despairing Saints defenders on the line with 18 minutes remaining.

Half-time substitute Callum Gallacher then had a rare effort for Alex Rae’s side, cutting in from the right before flashing a curling effort just past, but it signalled Saints belatedly coming to life.

After a scramble in the area, Thistle somehow cleared several efforts off the line before Gallacher’s volley from the edge of the box brought out a fantastic save from Tomas Cerny.

From the resultant corner the home side grabbed a lifeline, with Thistle failing to clear their lines and Keith Watson finishing from close range with a minute remaining.

It was too little too late though, and the visitors deservedly progressed despite the belated fightback from the home side.

ST MIRREN: Langfield; Watson, Baird, Webster, Kelly; Carswell (Stewart, 30’), Agnew; McMullan (Gallacher, 45’), Mallan, Howieson (Thompson, 77’); Shankland.

Scorers: Watson (89’)

Booked: (Mallan, 84’)

PARTICK THISTLE: Cerny; Miller, Seaborne, Lindsay, Booth; Welsh, Osman; Amoo, Lawless, Bannigan; Doolan (Nisbet, 86’).

Scorers: Seaborne (62’), Amoo (72’)

Man of the match: Lawless (Partick Thistle)

Referee: Craig Thomson

Attendance: 4572