GARY CALDWELL hailed his battling Partick Thistle stars after they earned themselves a place in the Betfred Cup quarter-finals with a 3-2 win over Ross County.
A barnstorming extra time saw three goals after a poor show in normal time.
Steven Saunders bagged the winner with 10 minutes to go and Caldwell praised his men for fighting for everything on the pitch.
He said: "I'm absolutely delighted with the performance. We worked on being a more aggressive team and I thought the boys were outstanding.
"That was, since I've been at the club, the best game we've had in terms of playing on our terms.
"It was the most fouls we've given in a game and that's a good thing. It means we're getting close to people and putting teams under pressure. The fans feed off that."
Liam Fontaine cracked a header off his own cross bar from a Thistle corner early on before Ross Draper had a goal-bound header nodded off the line.
Kenny Miller looked dangerous and had a strike that was well held by Ross Laidlaw between the sticks for the Staggies and the veteran had another chance when he hared in behind the back line but his shot was snuffed out.
A poor first half gave way to a better second half when Blair Spittal volleyed a stunning opening goal beyond Fox after Saunders had half cleared a cross.
The home side battled and probed and eventually found their equaliser through Miller. Strike-partner Alex Jones found him with a cutback and he swept home.
Extra time was only a few minutes old when youngster James Penrice curled a wicked free-kick into the back of the net to hand Thistle the lead for the first time, but Laidlaw will have been fuming after failing to push the ball clear but instead slapping it in the goal via the post.
County's fourth sub of the game Harry Paton slotted home the leveller but with time running out Saunders' header won the tie.
Co-manager of the visitors, Steve Ferguson, was disappointed but refused to criticise his players.
He said: "The players are hurting. We saw it as a brilliant opportunity to get to the latter stages of a cup. The players were trying but it just wasn't to be."
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