When Lewis Vaughan twisted away from one Accies defender close to goal in the dying minutes, and then turned another, it felt like the moment had finally come.
John Rankin’s side had withstood the constant pressure from Raith Rovers as they were decimated by injury and a second-half red card.
Hamilton’s backline stood strong and when it was breached keeper Ryan Fulton made big saves.
He pushed a Sam Stanton volley over the bar before two top-class saves.
For the first he somehow managed to scoop Vaughan’s header up and over the bar.
Then, in the dying minutes, he denied the forward from close range after Vaughan had escaped the close attention of the Accies defence.
But it was the slow start to the game that put them in that situation in the first place and Reghan Tumilty’s first-half strike proved to be the only goal.
Hard to take
“I’m gutted,” said Vaughan. “The first half kills us.
“We weren’t good enough in the first half, they score a goal. Three or four of their players go off injured, it kind of kills the game.
“We couldn’t get the ball down and pass.
“The sending off maybe helps Hamilton, I don’t know. On another day I maybe could have scored two goals.
“I thought both of them were in, to be honest. [Fulton] probably had the game of his life.
“Especially after the second chance, I was thinking ‘whatever I do here, I’m not going to score’.
“Fair play, but it’s hard to take.
“We can’t let it define the season. We need to concentrate on the league now.
“Eight games to go, eight cup finals to try and get into the play-offs.”
Rovers lacked a presence in the box until Isma Goncalves was taken off and Vaughan and Stanton were pushed on as a front two.
Even then it took until late on for the clear-cut chances to fall.
Personal positive
Despite the disappointment, Vaughan reflected on a positive for him personally after he recovered from a fourth serious injury.
“If you told me six months ago we’d end up in a cup final after four ACL injuries, I wouldn’t believe you,” he said.
“It hurts that we got beat today but we have a lot to play for before the end of the season.
“Even at the end, we never gave up. We never will give up.
“We’ll try our best to get into the play-offs until it’s impossible.
“The manager told us to be proud of ourselves for getting to the final in the first place, with a hard run.
“You look at the squads we had in the previous games, we had two subs.
Ian Murray says Raith Rovers must ‘take their medicine’ and push for play-offs after ‘occasion got to players’ https://t.co/G3sao0oCtj pic.twitter.com/A8UqIPYTVL
— The Courier Sport (@thecouriersport) March 26, 2023
“We had the hardest run to the final we could have had.
“We did amazingly to get there, it just wasn’t our day today.”
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