Dundee midfielder Paul McHale warned Tayside fans not to expect an easy trip through to the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup after their shock 2-1 win over Motherwell set up a quarter-final tie against fellow First Division side Queen of the South.

McHale and Scott Robertson fired the visitors into a two-goal lead after the interval before Motherwell substitute Darren Smith pulled a goal back just after the hour mark.

Midfielder Kevin McDonald and defender Gary McKenzie were then sent off for two yellow cards apiece and had to survive five tense minutes of added time.

But McHale knows victory over Motherwell will mean nothing when it comes to the trip to Palmerston next month.

"It will be a tough game in Dumfries so we would obviously like to take care of that game first," said the former Clyde player.

"We have only beaten them once in three attempts this year so we need to go there and hopefully win it and hope for the best.

"In the first half we were just trying to match their energy. At half-time we started to believe that we could actually go and win the game.

"We took the game to them in the second half, played better and managed to create some opportunities that we took.

"We could have got a third but we were happy winning 2-1."

Dundee will go to Dumfries in the next round without McDonald and McKenzie and manager Alex Rae will contact the Scottish Football Association in a bid to bring in emergency loan players.

The Dens Park boss said: "I couldn't see how he could give a yellow card for McDonald's first booking. It was a very strange decision.

"I had no complaints about the other sending off, it was two booking for Gary.

"Overall we are delighted to be in the next round but we will have a few bodies missing for the game against Queen of the South.

"I will have to see about an emergency loan, players who are not cup-tied obviously, because we don't have the bodies.

"Queen of the South turned us over on our own patch a couple of weeks ago so we know it's not going to be easy down there.

"But if we apply ourselves the way we did against Motherwell then hopefully we will progress."

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee could not hide his disappointment but had no complaints about the scoreline.

He said: "It was hugely disappointing because we harboured ambitions of getting to the semi-final.

"But it was easily our poorest performance of the season.

"We weren't at the races, we didn't compete, we didn't cope with the physical challenges and all quality deserted us. But well done Dundee."

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