Michael Weir: Hibs were imbalanced at Hampden and too many players didn't turn up

You cannot play for 25 or 35 minutes in a cup semi-final and expect that to be enough to win it.

Jason Kerr and Shaun Rooney celebrate the opening goal at Hampden

It’s so disappointing that it's another cup run over, especially after Hibs had started well and looked as though they would go in front.

If they had taken the lead then I'm sure it would have been a very different game but once they lost the goal it looked to me like they just mentally collapse and crucially, they didn’t handle the event.

I don’t know if the team has a problem with big matches but it certainly seems to struggle in semi-finals.

First and foremost you have to turn up and deal with the event. I'm a great believer in the importance of handling big occasions and Hibs certainly didn't manage that on Saturday.

The team looks better when they're in front, when they’re leading a game, and the reaction, or lack of, when they lost the goal was disappointing.

They didn't ever look capable of getting back into the game and St Johnstone just got stronger. Fair play to them – after they went in front they were by far the better side and they looked like they wanted it more. They looked like they wanted to be in the final.

If you’re a goal down at half-time that’s when you have to get the sleeves rolled up and show that you want to get into the final but Hibs just looked like a pale shadow, as if they were lost.

My one concern before the game was whether Hibs would handle the occasion but I did feel that, of the four teams left in the competition, they were the team most capable of winning the cup but these matches are about more than football; it's about getting over the line and winning the game.

It might not be pretty but all that matters is winning.

Having said that, I felt on Saturday that Hibs had so many attacking players on the pitch that the team was out of shape and imbalanced.

It's all well and good debating which players should and shouldn’t have played but the manager has to pick the team he thinks is right for the game.

No matter the make-up of the team on the park at Hampden, it should have been more than capable of beating St Johnstone.

But you can’t go into a cup semi-final carrying five or six players and unfortunately Hibs did. There were three or four, maybe more, that just didn’t turn up.

Looking at the St Johnstone team, I don't think they had a single player who didn’t turn up. I didn’t see many failings in their team but I saw a lot in Hibs, nonemoreso than the very visible draining of confidence after the first goal.

But by far the biggest disappointment was the second half. Even a goal down, I was expecting Hibs to come out with a real desire to reach the final but after they lost the early goal they just looked like they had accepted defeat.

It's now important that attention turns to Wednesday's game against Rangers; the perfect match to get over the semi-final defeat and hopefully start a run of better form.

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