Derek McInnes admitted he got his team selection wrong after Hearts’ perfect start to the campaign was ended by a 5-4 penalty shootout defeat at St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup.
The Jambos had won each of their six outings this season but their momentum was halted – and their long wait for a first League Cup triumph since 1962 extended – as the Buddies prevailed in the shootout following a 1-1 draw in which Oisin McEntee’s 78th-minute equaliser cancelled out Alex Gogic’s first-half opener for the hosts.
Hearts substitute Claudio Braga was the only one of the 10 penalty takers who failed to score after his kick was saved by Shamal George.
McInnes was heartened by the way his side rallied to get back in the game but admitted their lacklustre start was partly down to the fact he pitched in too many new players, with Tomas Bent Magnusson and Pierre Landry Kabore handed their first starts and Alexandros Kyziridis given his second start.
All three summer signings were substituted for the start of the second half.
“I’m disappointed to exit the cup, congratulations to St Mirren, they’ve won a tight tie on penalties,” said manager McInnes.
“I think the type of game it was in extra time, I’d love to have been bringing Kyziridis and Kabore on. Maybe we got the game the wrong way round a wee bit, and that’s on me.
“Maybe we had just one too many of the new lads starting the game. That was a typical cup tie, away from home against a St Mirren team who were top six last season.
“Sometimes you’ve got to give players a run, but maybe we just fell short on that side and that’s probably on me.
“But that’s not the reason we lost the tie because we got ourselves in a good position. I just wanted us to hammer home that authority (after equalising) and a Hearts team should be able to do that going forward.”
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson was delighted with the fight his team showed to reach the last eight.
“In the first half we were outstanding,” he said. “We played some fantastic football, we pressed the life out of them. And then second half, we didn’t do the simple things well enough and Hearts dominated the ball.
“And the subs that Hearts are bringing on, with a lot of money invested in the squad, you’re obviously going to have to defend and we’ve done that with some super performances.
“Penalties becomes a little bit of a lottery but we’ve got an excellent goalkeeper so we had real faith that he would save at least one.”
