St Mirren take the Hampden trail in the League Cup
Mehmet’s strike dumps out the Jambos
The terrible condition of the Fir Park pitch has been well stated and St Mirren reacted to the surface far better than Hearts. Gus McPherson shifted his tactics around and realised that the Motherwell ground was no place for fancy football.
Getting it into the danger zone paid dividends for St Mirren and the Paisley side were the far stronger team.
This site has given Billy Mehmet a hard time on occasions and whilst this doesn’t change our opinion on him, fair play to the striker. Those that love a cliché will be able to state that the goal was fit to win any semi-final and Mehmet has been the man in cup competitions this season for St Mirren.
His 51st minute strike was the difference between the sides.
St Mirren had fifteen efforts on goal, 8 of them on target. This emphasises the Buddies dominance but it does point to a wasteful forward line. That said, semi-finals are rarely classics and it is all about winning.
The Paisley side stumbled at the semi-final of the Scottish Cup last season but they have gone on better in this seasons League Cup. It is likely they will face Rangers in the March showdown and surely pressure must be applied to the SFL to recognise this as the Chick Young final.
Yes, we are aware that Chick isn’t dead yet but its a win:win situation for the journalist. Well, unless St Mirren win.
That is for then though and St Mirren fans should celebrate their semi-final win for a little while longer yet. If it is to be Rangers in the final, not many people will give St Mirren much hope in the final but the gap between Rangers and the rest of the SPL is diminishing.
Of course, St Johnstone could cause an almighty upset on Wednesday and make it an All Saints Day in the final but the Buddies will just be glad to be there and their fans can dream of Hampden glory to come.
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Just how bad are Hearts??
A great opportunity to reach a national final blown, especially with one half of the old Firm out before the last four, these opportunities are few and far between for SPL teams.
Should Rangers take care of St Johnstone tonight, it will set up a final against the other Saints from Paisley, which should again secure another League Cup triumph for the men in blue.
Only complacency should stop Rangers.
St Johnstone will give a good account of themselves tonight (they’ve been unfortunate in semi’s against Rangers and Celtic in recent years…were they both under Owen Coyle?) but you would expect Rangers will have enough.
There is definitely something wrong with Hearts at the moment although well done to St Mirren.