Derek McInnes urged Kilmarnock to fight to the final whistle in their Scottish Gas Scottish Cup tie against Dundee after suffering a double disappointment against the Dens Park side in the cinch Premiership this season.

The Dee grabbed a last-gasp equaliser through captain Joe Shaughnessy in the 2-2 draw in Ayrshire on December 30 after the home side had taken the lead with a Rory McKenzie goal in the third minute of added time.

Killie had also succumbed to Dundee late in the game in September when Zak Rudden’s added-time goal for the 10-man hosts gave Tony Docherty’s side a point in a 2-2 draw.

McInnes, happy to add striker Greg Stewart to his squad on Thursday after the 33-year-old arrived from Indian Super League side Mumbai City, reflected on the two late setbacks against his former assistant Docherty as he looked forward to the fourth-round tie on Saturday.

He said: “We score in the 93rd, 94th minute and you automatically feel that’s the game in the bag, but the people who can’t think that way are the players and you’ve still got to see the job through.

“Dundee have scored a lot of goals from set-plays so the one thing you can guarantee in any game is the ball is coming in your box so you’ve got to withstand that.

“I think in open play we’ve been pretty comfortable against them. They do carry a threat at set-plays with the size they’ve got and both equalising goals were from corner kicks in the dying embers of the game.

“That’s allowed us to drop four points in the league which always nags away at you. I think it’s important that we try and focus on the good when we’ve played Dundee and just remember that we’ve got a job to see it through if we’re in a similar position, but we’re going to have to work hard to get ourselves in front.

“I think it will be a tight match, a competitive match, a lot of good players in both teams. It’s a cup tie and we want to do well in the cup, we see the importance of the cup as well as having a strong league campaign.”

Dundee made it two cinch Premiership wins in a row as they swept St Mirren aside 4-0 at Dens Park.

The victory came thanks to an Amadou Bakayoko double with Zak Rudden netting from the penalty spot and substitute Zach Robinson scoring a fourth late on.

The win moved Dundee up to fifth in the Premiership table, just two points behind the Buddies in third.

Dens manager Tony Docherty made just one change from the side that beat Livingston last Sunday with Malachi Boateng coming in for Mo Sylla, who dropped to the bench.

Buddies boss Stephen Robinson also made one change to the team that drew with Hibs in midweek with Keanu Baccus replacing ill skipper Mark O’Hara.

The hosts wasted a gilt-edged opportunity to open the scoring in the second minute when Rudden robbed St Mirren defender Richard Taylor but with just keeper Zach Hemming to beat, the striker smacked his shot off the post.

However, the Dark Blues had another chance in the 16th minute – and this time they took it.

Owen Beck swung a corner in from the left with the ball only being cleared as far as Bakayoko, who clinically drilled a low shot past Hemming and into the back of the net.

The Buddies looked to respond with Conor McMenamin making room for a shot but he dragged his effort wide of home keeper Trevor Carson’s left-hand post.

As the half-hour mark approached, both sides were struggling to carve out further clear-cut chances with too many attacks breaking down before they had fully developed.

However, the Dark Blues doubled their advantage in first-half stoppage time.

Another Beck corner was headed on by Antonio Portales with the ball hitting Marcus Fraser’s arm and referee Matthew MacDermid had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Rudden stepped up to take responsibility and hit an empathic penalty into the back of the net, sending Hemming the wrong way.

Buddies boss Robinson rang the changes at the break, bringing on four subs, but the Dark Blues scored their third of the afternoon in the 57th minute.

Rudden broke down the right and hit a fierce shot that was saved by the diving Hemming but Bakayoko was on hand to gleefully slot home the rebound.

Dundee did net their fourth in the 85th minute to complete a miserable day for St Mirren, with Luke McCowan breaking forward before laying off a pass to Robinson, who shot past Hemming for his first Premiership goal of the season.

Philippe Clement thanked the Rangers supporters for backing their team in the 5-0 win over Dundee at Dens Park but asked them to leave the pyrotechnics at home in future.

The match was delayed by 45 minutes after the Rangers team bus was held up in traffic and then suspended for 18 minutes after the travelling fans let off a large number of flares that triggered fire alarms under the stand.

Rangers were unaffected by either delay as they ran out comfortable winners thanks to goals from Ryan Jack, Danilo, Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and James Tavernier.

Clement was pleased with his players’ focus but hoped there would not be future firework displays from the Rangers fanbase.

The Belgian said: “I expect a team that’s always ready no matter what happens, even if they say we have to play in the car park.

“We need to be ready because we play this game to win, so we must always be ready to adapt to the situations.

“The players were ready and after going inside again it was the same. Because you have five minutes in the dressing room it doesn’t mean you lose your focus.

“They need to be winners so whatever circumstances, whatever pitch, whatever weather, we are there to win games. That’s the mentality I want.

“I hope that the club does not face sanctions. You come here in the warm-up and the stand is full, everyone is chanting and supporting the players, giving a lot of energy.

“Those are very important things. We feel also the dynamic between fans and players is changing and it’s because of both sides.

“It was good the team started bright again, but I think everyone will understand that it’s really good to have all this support, all these songs and all this energy – I love it – but keep the fire outside of the stadium.”

Dundee boss Tony Docherty admitted he thought the game was going to be abandoned when referee Kevin Clancy took the players off the pitch.

He said: “It was a bizarre night and at one stage I thought the game wasn’t going to go ahead. I was trying to keep the boys focused.

“Then we start the game and because of the pyros we get brought in again. There’s a debate on whether there’s a place for that but the game was almost abandoned.

“The police took control and I didn’t think we were going to go back out again. That affects focus. When it’s almost causing matches to be abandoned I think we need to address it.”

Tony Docherty insisted Josh Mulligan should never have been shown a straight red card in a pulsating cinch Premiership contest withvat Dens Park.

The game was locked at 1-1, after Amadou Bakayoko’s opener for the home side was cancelled out by a Daniel Armstrong penalty, when midfielder Mulligan was given his marching orders by referee David Munro for bringing down the Killie scorer.

After the break, it looked like Armstrong had secured the win for the visitors when he struck again late on but deep in stoppage time, home substitute Zak Rudden pounced to snatch a draw with Killie boss Derek McInnes also shown a red card.

Docherty was pleased with his team’s resilience to come from behind to snatch a point against his former long-time managerial partner’s team.

However, he was fuming over the Mulligan dismissal.

Docherty said: “I’m delighted with my team to come back from a game where you are 2-1 down, down to 10 men and nine minutes to go.

“I thought it was never a red card and I said that to the referee.

“Yes, it was a foul and a booking. It’s about consistency – if that’s the decision for that tackle then there should have been seven or eight red cards today.

“I thought we were harshly treated today but I don’t want to be talking about officials – I want to talk about my team and they showed resilience in absolute spades.”

Derek McInnes admitted he apologised to referee Munro after his “bizarre” red card at the end of the game.

The Killie boss was trying to get the ball back to his players but it had not gone out and the official dismissed him for entering the field of play without permission.

McInnes said: “I was convinced the ball was out and all I was trying to do was get the ball back to my player. I wasn’t trying to stop an attack, I wasn’t trying to be clever.

“The referee said he didn’t want to send me off but it is a technicality as I entered the field of play without permission.

“It was a bit bizarre, to be honest. I am convinced the ball was out but it spun back in. So I have apologised to the referee.”

While disappointed with the red card shown to him, McInnes was more frustrated that his team had not managed to see the game out against the 10 men of Dundee.

The manager added: “We said at half-time that it is not a given when teams go down to 10 men.

“We were just conscious of not giving up set-plays and for us to lose two set-plays, particularly the one at the death, is so disappointing.”