Sergio believes cup win was well deserved

22 March 2012 07:16

Hearts manager Paulo Sergio believes his side were worthy 2-0 victors over St Mirren in Wednesday's William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final in Paisley.

Jamie Hamill's 31st-minute opener and an 86th-minute second from Rudi Skacel, a cup winner in his first spell with Hearts in 2006, saw the Edinburgh side advance to a semi-final meeting with holders Celtic on April 15.

"It was a very good game," Sergio said. "St Mirren started better and those first 15 minutes they were moving the ball very well. After that I think we took control of the game. I think we deserved victory. The boys worked very hard. We are all very, very happy to go to the semi-final."

Saints were unfortunate to be denied the lead in a first half full of incident, with a penalty awarded for handball against Marius Zaliukas when the slightest hesitation from referee Stevie O'Reilly would have seen Nigel Hasselbaink put the hosts in front. Graham Carey then saw his resulting 13th-minute spot-kick well saved by Jamie MacDonald.

Asked whether his side were fortunate not to be behind to Hasselbaink's effort, Sergio, who praised MacDonald for the penalty save, said: "The referee whistled before. If we lost a goal in that moment we had lots of time to change things."

St Mirren boss Danny Lennon felt aggrieved O'Reilly had not delayed his decision.

Lennon said: "I thought he was very, very quick to blow. They have this wee safety net, three to five seconds that they can let it go to see if there's any advantage to be gained - there certainly was.

"I've seen it (the replay) and from the ball hitting his (Zaliukas') hand and Nigel putting it in you're lucky if there's a second. But he made his decision and it was a fantastic save from the goalkeeper."

He added: "In any game you do need that wee bit of luck and you do need breaks. We don't seem to be getting them at this moment in time.

"We've got to take a great bit of belief from a very, very good first half. But we've got nothing to show from it and it's a great opportunity missed."

Source: PA