Scottish Cup fever may have been gripping the country over the weekend, but it’s fair to say that the only fever taking hold of the natives of Perth was down to the inclement weather.

Credit must go the ground staff at McDiarmid Park for getting this one on, but the hardy band of regulars that filed in to witness their side meekly exit the famous old competition must have wished they hadn’t bothered.

As for Kilmarnock, their travelling support would have headed south delighted to be in the fifth round for the first time in three years, and encouraged by the manner of their victory, which was comfortable in the main after Craig Slater’s excellent early goal. Manager Gary Locke, under-fire so often this season, deserves credit for the way his well-organised side defended, and for the threat they posed on the break during the first-half in particular.

That being said, they had goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald to thank for an astonishing triple-save in the final minute to deny St Johnstone a replay. Locke was full of praise for his number one, and his side overall.

“They had to throw everything at us in the last few minutes and Jamie was superb,” he said.

“If there’s a better goalkeeper in this league then I’ve yet to see him. The saves he made at the end were fantastic.

"We were quite rightly given stick a few weeks ago for some results but we have responded. We won’t be getting carried away but I was delighted with the young lads we had in the side. I don’t think Kilmarnock get the credit they deserve for the players they have coming through but they all showed their confidence.”

A needless foul by Dave MacKay on the impressive Greg Kiltie on the edge of the area gave the visitors the early opportunity to open the scoring, and it was one that Slater was not about to pass up.

With Stevie Smith looking the likelier option to take, Slater stepped up and placed a glorious effort high past Alan Mannus into the top right-hand corner with just 6 minutes on the clock.

St Johnstone’s only threat in the opening half hour came from two free-kicks at a similar range to the one Slater fired home for Kilmarnock, but David Wotherspoon and then Dave MacKay floated their efforts over MacDonald’s bar.

The home fans would have been hoping for a reaction after the interval, but again it was the visitors who started brightly with the outstanding Adam Frizzell feeding Magennis who brought a save from Mannus at the near post.

Just after the hour the home side finally tested MacDonald when a neat one-two between Davidson and Wotherspoon gave the latter the chance to get a fierce effort away that the Kilmarnock keeper did well to get behind for a corner. He made rather a hash of Easton’s resultant delivery, punching the ball off the back of one of his own defenders, but the visitors managed to scramble the ball clear.

Tommy Wright made a double substitution to try and get back into the game with Graham Cummins and John Sutton entering the fray, and Sutton might have made an immediate impact.

Chris Millar’s cross came off the face of the bar, and when Wotherspoon drove the ball back into the area Sutton stretched to make contact but couldn’t keep his effort down.

Millar then had to limp off with a hamstring injury, leaving the home side to play out the last few minutes with ten men with all substitutions made.

Quite how they didn’t equalise in the final minute though is anyone’s guess, as a driving run from Davidson allowed Sutton, MacKay and then Cummins to hammer the ball at MacDonald from close range, but the Kilmarnock stopper somehow pulled off that series of astonishing blocks to put his side into the hat for Monday’s draw. St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright could scarcely believe it.

“From my view Jamie’s saves were horrible,” he said.

“I thought there were only two but the boys said it was three. It was incredible and it wasn’t luck as goalkeepers work at that and he’s kept them in the cup tie and won it for Kilmarnock with a piece of brilliance.

“In the last 15 minutes we had all the chances we needed to not only draw the game but possibly even go on and win it. That’s been a similar pattern to the last three games.

“But despite those chances we have ended up with very few points and now we are out of the cup so of course we are disappointed.”