McCall also claimed the home team should have been reduced to 10 men after Ryan Edwards was involved in an off-the-ball incident with Brian Graham in the second half.

The Thistle bench were livid but referee Steven McLean and his officials did not see anything amiss.

The Jags had taken the lead through Scott Tiffoney but were pegged back by Lawrence Shankland before substitute Nicky Clark secured the win late on for the Tangerines.

However, McCall was left fuming his side were out of the cup and said: "We should have been 3-0 up at half-time.

"There is no place for what the big centre-back has done – punching somebody on the pitch.

"We're really disappointed the referee and the linesman didn't see it.

"I've been in the game a long time and it's rare you see something like that.

"Maybe he'll [Edwards] get punished for it because it's punished us.

"So I'm just really disappointed for all our players and fans who weren't here."

Home boss Micky Mellon was just relieved United were through to the next round.

He said: "The important thing is we got there in the end.

"Obviously as a coaching staff and me as the manager we want to see the team playing as well as possible.

"There is a lot of stuff we want to improve on but we showed in little spells what we want to do as a team.

"We lost our way a little in the first half but second half we came out and probably didn't get the rewards to start with for getting on track again.

"But to be in the hat for the next round is the most important thing."