Hibernian head coach Jack Ross praised his fringe players after they bounced back from consecutive defeats to beat Dundee 4-1 in the Betfred Cup.
Hibs picked up their fourth win in the competition to secure a place among the second-round seeds, before being handed an Easter Road rematch with James McPake’s side.
Stevie Mallan, who has only started one league game this season, opened the scoring from long range with his third goal in the competition this season.
And substitutes Jamie Gullan and Melker Hallberg were soon on target after Jordan McGhee’s own goal had put Hibs back in front following Christie Elliott’s equaliser.
Ross, whose side had lost to Hearts and Aberdeen in their previous two matches, told Premier Sports: “There’s some good players here who have had some limited game time.
“Recently we had used the fewest players in the Premiership in terms of our league matches, and that’s because we have been playing well and individually the players had been performing well.
“So when you have a little bit of a dip in performances and results it opens up opportunities potentially.
“And all those players that had opportunities, whether starting or coming off the bench, did their utmost to make the most of them, I think did their utmost to try to make the most of them, and that’s encouraging for me.”
McPake was frustrated to see the game slip away so quickly after their 71st-minute leveller.
“A six-minute period cost us the game,” he said. “We worked ever so hard to get back and I was proud of the players for that.
“But when you lose a game in a six-minute period, particularly with the goals we lost, it’s sloppy.”
