Dundee United head coach Tam Courts hailed the performance of young defender Ross Graham as his side kept a fourth successive clean sheet in Saturday’s 1-0 Scottish Cup victory over Partick Thistle.

That run of shut-outs has coincided with the impressive return of 20-year-old Graham from an underwhelming loan spell at Dunfermline.

Since his recall, the defender has thrived despite being thrown in at the deep end with a debut at Celtic Park and he has been involved in clean sheets against Dundee, St Johnstone and Motherwell prior to Saturday’s match.

Courts said: “It’s been really challenging for Ross Graham because he’s played four games in the space of 10 days or so.

“There’s been a lot for him to cope with mentally, physically and emotionally and to come to a place like this and be part of a resolute defensive unit and keep a clean sheet is a lot to be said for his character.”

The United boss was also full of praise for the rest of his backline and particularly goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist who made a string of saves in the match.

“I thought the guys in defence were really resolute today,” he added. “They defended their box really well and we had to do that.

“We did look a bit leggy at times but the pitch is difficult and Partick Thistle are an energetic team and they are used to playing on the surface.

“They’ve also not played as many games as us and they’re a good side but the key thing for us is just making sure we’re in the hat and that’s our fourth clean sheet on the trot so it was really pleasing from a defensive aspect.

“Our goalkeeper was tremendous.

“Coming here today we knew there was going to be some thrills and spills with the conditions and we might need to rely on his shot stopping and cross taking and that was very evident today.”

A number of those saves were from Scott Tiffoney who produced a man-of-the-match performance for the Jags, with his jinking runs and threatening crosses causing the away side problems all afternoon.

Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall said: “For a winger, the level of consistency he shows is unbelievable.

“I played here and I was never that consistent.

“I said to him before the game, ‘It is not a free hit for us because our supporters think we should beat Dundee United here’ and we should have done because we were comfortably better than them.”