Motherwell have been handed a Betfred quarter final tie against Hearts at Tynecastle. It's a chance to knock the Edinburgh side out of the competition for the second year in a row.
The full draw is
Rangers v Ayr United
St Johnstone v Celtic
Hearts v Motherwell
Hibs/Ross County v Aberdeen
Our win on the bouncy Livingston pitch showed some improvement over that seen in the first two league games. Gone was the relentless direct ball and instead some football emerged.
With Bigirimana directing play from the centre we probed the opposition defence with some passes and with Frear ever eager to make progress on the left wing we created plenty of chances especially in the first half.
Stephen Robinson was particularly pleased with our opening 45 minutes and he credited the Livi 'keeper for keeping the score to one by the break. He felt we delivered a "super battling performance" in the second half when Livingston went direct and threw everything at us. He praised his back four for the handling of their balls into our box.
Responding to a question about Johnson the manager replied that he was a goal scorer and that there was a feeling that he would score goals no matter what partner he had. He had still some way to go to reach full fitness, "at the moment we're getting 60/70 minutes from him."
"If you look at our injury list then last year we couldn't have coped. We would not have won this game. But we've strengthened. We were able to bring Aaron Sinclair and Conor Sammon off the bench. We were able to rest Alan Campell and I genuinely believe (the strengthening) has stood us in good stead for the season ahead."
The quarter final tie is scheduled for the midweek 25/25 September.