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I didn't like St Mirren's style of playing but it was effective. Strip out the cynicism, playacting and fouling and you are left with a sound gameplan that succeeded. They bottled up the wings and were quite content to let us knock the ball about nicely in areas of the pitch that didn't matter. Sit back, test us and wait for the mistakes. It worked a treat. I'm still not 100% sold on our brand of football. Call me a dinosaur if you want. Yes, I like attratctive flowing football, but it has to have some purpose, some end product. There has to be a solid defence and an attack thats lethal. As it is, we knock the ball about nicely but too often in an aimless way. If, and its a big if, St Mirren win the League Cup Final how many of our fans will stick to their principles and say that they'd rather be knocked out 4-1 in the semi trying to play modern football than win it playing ugly. Our experiment still has a way to go and that must involve personnel changes in January, but I'm still not totally convinced we can pull off our switch to modern possession based football. I hope I'm wrong.

I believe our starting lineup reflected an intention to get in behind St Mirren on either flank - hence Said and Maswanhise and not Slattery. But neither Said nor Maswanhise offered anything like what they should have and this was compounded by Koutrumbus and Longelo being far too tentative and lacking in any menace. So Stamatulopoulos had little or no chance of being effective. I’m with mio - I despise St Mirren and their ethos of robust directness. They are ugly to watch, graceless in victory and were given, rather than created, three of their goals. It wasn’t their tactics or their style that beat us - although to listen to their self analysis that is what they are claiming. They broke up play by going down at almost every contact, they stole yards after every dead ball and slowed the game down as often as they could. A weak referee and our failure to stay firm at the back were our undoing, not a Robinson masterclass. I am sorry that such a remarkable turnout if our fans were so sadly disappointed - they deserved better - but I doubt we were beaten by the better team

If Slattery was fully fit he would have started today. We have to remember that was his 3 rd game in a week after a return from injury. The manager has to manage those situations carefully. The game is won and lost on fine margins. The first, the referee helped to tee the corner up for Saints. The second, Just was unlucky that the ball hit off him and landed as it did. It was a great finish none the less. The 3rd could just as easily have been a great save but the ball looped into the back of the net For me the first goal set the tone and St Mirren managed the game very well from that point onwards. When I take a step back from the obvious disappointment of the evening, I would still rather be watching our brand of football than St Mirrens and I believe by seasons end we will still finish above them.

Well what an anti climax that was. 1st goal shouldn't have stood but apart from that no excuses. I am huge Askou fan but he got starting line-up wrong, Welsh and slatts should have started. No point having loads of possession and doing hee haw with it. Our full ba cks terrible today and I have defended Stama loads but Hendry needs a run. It's disappointing but this is still a work in progress and as long as Askou learns from it then I am sure we can have a good season

An excellent turnout but it didn’t feel like it from where I was sitting. If I was ever in doubt, I’d now fully support moving these games to Easter Road or Tynecastle.

Good post. Apart from poor passing and being lightweight, our build up was laboured, slow and predictable. It seemed to me that we were pacing ourselves in the first half for a full 90 minutes or extra time. Someone forgot to tell St Mirren. Agree that we need a RB, CB, goalie and striker in January. Other managers will have learnt from St Mirren's tactics today.

That's last 4 visits to Hampden for me we been beaten easy. Beginning to be boring now. What's point of getting there if we can't compete?

One positive from today, a crowd of 21,377 is a great effort from 2 supposed diddy teams. Shame we couldnt put on a show to encourage more of our lot to come back.

Hampdens place of so many bad memories now when we get stage fright but today we were not competing enough and lacked guile in last 3rd. Paid a lot of money to get to this and left deflated. Badly need CB RB goalie and CF Defence and goalie at 3rd goal looked like a scene from keystone cops.

Agree Welsh and slats should have started however we would still be outfought and toothless up front. On this showing Hendry should start. Please off load stama

Is it possible to get him back?

Absolutely this.

A typical Hampden performance from us. Oh how I hate the place. The seeds of that disgrace were sown before kick off with an odd line up. No Welsh or Slattery. Presumably the latter was being kept fresh to come on later and help us defend a one or two goal lead? We were outhought, outfought and outplayed, although 4-1 flattered Saints. Robinson had our gameplan well and truly sussed. Not one of JBA's best days. Only passmarks go to Hendry and Slattery. That game ranks alongside semi final defeats to Airdrie, and will remain in the memory of many for years to come.

Nil vote.

That's why I think we should have tried to keep Armstrong.

A bit, more than a bit, we were garbage but St Mirren were an average team that played to their strengths. They were still the better team and were clinical and defended well. That's the killer, we wouldn't need to have been top notch to take them, semi competent would have been enough. They had 4 shots a goal and scored all 4 we had 4 shots at goal and got 1. They took the gifts we presented to them. That's not a hard gig in football.

Referee also let them away with borderline thuggery and time wasting. They are adept at dark arts. Mostly hammer throwers.

we’ve got a trip to Aberdeen next weekend to cheer us up yes? SIWY Mon the Well!

Said it last week following Livingston if we can get a physical centre forward in January we’ll have a good end to the season lot of nice play but zero danger a large portion of games St mirren got their tactics rights & just to street wise for us today

Totally agree. McGin and odonnel should never have had extended contracts. I think we should have took bid for Stama and got player on loan. Defence needs rebuild.

Very disappointing performance and result. It only takes our game to be a fraction off for us to look powderpuff in attack and disjointed at the back. A lot of the narrative in the build-up was that the big pitch would be to our advantage. If anything it was the opposite, we weren’t able to move at pace whilst St Mirren quickly got from A to B. The likes of Just and Said were swallowed up by St Mirren’s powerful defence and midfield. Koutroumbis was afforded acres of space, St Mirren banking on him doing little with it. We only started to carry a threat once both Welsh and Slattery were on the pitch, the latter the only one capable of spreading the ball with a bit of quality. This does call into the question the starting lineup, I initially assumed both weren’t 100% fit. Good luck to St Mirren in the final. Robinson knows how to get a tune out his team in a semi and I wouldn’t mind him going one step further. Time for us to lick our wounds and sharpen up at both ends of the pitch.

I find it really difficult to comprehend that a provincial side has reached a national final and will play either of the old firm and I will want the old firm to win?? I feel quite dirty about this but I really despise St Mirren as a club, I can’t stand their players, manager and in particular their fan base. i think I need to go to bed. It’s been a horrible day.

Its far too often style over substance if you are not scoring goals you dont win games, our midfield is fine, up front we are dreadful Stamatelopoulos is hopeless, and defensively we are weak, especially at right back. We need to sort it out in January as we let a bang average St Mirren side get the easiest place in a major final they will ever get today.

i get why we came into this season with stama as our number 9 but he ain't the answer.the issues we have in defence are completely our own making,we didn't need to keep both O'donnell and mcginn on,it should have been one or the other or ideally neither and the wages used to try and improve an already shit defence,gordon was a part of that shit defence last season but yet we go into a semi final with him and mcginn,it just won't do,Johnny k is a bit part part player at best,not the solid right back that we're crying out for,longelo has been a good signing but today and the livi game, he was awful but we don't have another to come in and give him a rest for a couple of games.throw in a piss poor keeper and it's a recipe for disaster.its going to be same old same old while the likes of mcginn and gordon are here,if any good comes of today it should show the manager that the defence needs ripped up and starting again.