TONY Bullock could this morning have been looking forward to a last eight tie with one of his old clubs. Instead, though, the Ross County goalkeeper will be rueing the error that may have prevented his side advancing to face either Dundee United or St Mirren.

Liam Craig was the grateful beneficiary of the mistake, the St Johnstone midfielder scoring the only goal of an entertaining encounter in the 14th minute to consigned the Dingwall club to a second cup exit this term at the hand of the Perth men.

While the first division side shaded the first half, they were pegged back for good spells of the second period by the team from the league below. County, though, never quite recovered from Bullock's mistake and were unable to force a replay.

"It's very disappointing," said Derek Adams, the manager of County. "In possession, waves of attack and opportunities we were ahead of them by far.

"I turned to Derek McInnes and he was a relieved man at the end. You could see in his face that they were panicking. Bullock hasn't had a save, but his mistake was just one of those things that happen."

Gus MacPherson and Craig Levein were both in attendance, and so were Craig Brewster, the Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager and Mixu Paatelainen of Hibernian. Andy Barrowman was the man in their glare but the County striker suffered a disappointing evening against the team who knocked them out of the SFL Challenge Cup.

The Perth side were clearly hungry for a repeat and almost established an early advantage when an acrobatic volley from Peter MacDonald was tipped over by a full-stretch Bullock.

But the goalkeeper was soon subject of scorn. Having to adjust his positioning to meet a Martin Scott back-pass, he skewed his clearance to Craig, who was left with an empty net.

Andy Jackson almost added a second soon after as the pace of the visitors caused problems but County began to gain a foothold. Alex Keddie dropped a header just over but the hosts still looked shaky, with Bullock spilling a MacDonald effort, then watching another past.

Adams tweaked his side at the interval, injecting more verve into their efforts. Daniel Moore, the substitute, made an immediate impact and Sean Higgins and Andy Dowie both went close as the visitors began to suffer from nerves.

That, though, was as good as it got, leaving Bullock to reflect on his decisive early error.

Ross County (4-2-3-1) Bullock; Miller, Dowie, Keddie, Golabek; Brady (Lawson 57), Scott; Shields (Petrie 82), Higgins, Strachan (Moore 46); Barrowman. Subs: Malin, Boyd. Booked Lawson, Scott

St Johnstone (4-3-3) Main; Irvine, Rutkiewicz, Anderson, Stanic (McManus 80); Craig, Anderson, Sheerin; Jackson, MacDonald (Moon 64), Milne (Weatherston 89). Subs: Cuthbert, McCluskey. Booked Rutkeiwicz, Anderson, Jackson Referee W Collum