Hard to beat. Solid. Well organised at the back. Don’t give away cheap goals.
As McInnes observed, the bigger the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
He said, “Our supporters have been kicked in the teeth again.
“I wanted to do it for them.
“Today of all days was as poor as we’ve been defensively.”
He added, “I felt we needed big performances individually and as a team but we didn’t get that.
“You always learn about your players. Some of them played exactly as I would have expected but others didn’t do as well as they can.
“If I get back here as St Johnstone manager I know the ones I can count on.
“We expected so much from ourselves, and everyone connected with the club expected so much, but we’ve delivered so little.”
Saints’ defending came under the spotlight at the weekend but McInnes admitted that the team’s long-standing issues up front were plain to see again at the national stadium.’Failed miserably’He said, “We know that at the top end of the pitch we’ve failed miserably.
“It’s been like that for a while and I’ll work hard to address that. The close season is a very important time for us and I’ll do my best to improve the squad.”
Saturday’s failure will help drive McInnes on when the new season gets under way, he insisted.
He said, “We knew what this would have meant to the club.
“This result doesn’t diminish my determination to bring success here.”
Motherwell have in the likes of Murphy, Sutton, Jeffers and Chris Humphrey and Francis Jeffers players with that ability to change games that Saints are lacking.
Fir Park boss Stuart McCall said, “We saw individual brilliance from Murphy and Sutton and I said before the game that we were capable of that.
“We were 2-0 up without having played really and even at 3-0 I always felt that if they got one back early enough it could all change.
“But all in all it was a case of job done for us and I’m thrilled that we’ve got through to the final.”
All phrases that have been regularly and rightly trotted out to describe St Johnstone this season. Until after the match when it mattered most, that is.
For the first half of Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final it was as if a team of impostors had taken the field for the Perth side.
Only those inside the Saints dressing room will know whether it was a case of stage fright on the big day, or if it was just a cruel coincidence that it all went horribly wrong for them at the worst possible time.
There was certainly no sign of nerves in the opening exchanges, as it was they who started brightest.
With just two minutes on the clock a Danny Grainger free-kick was helped on by a Danny Invincibile glancing header and had to be tipped over the bar by Darren Randolph.
It didn’t take long for the match to take a turn for the worse, though, as on five minutes Peter Enckelman punched fresh air from a Tom Hateley inswinging corner and Stephen Craigan was unmarked four yards out and couldn’t miss. It was Motherwell’s first attack.
Their second goal came on 14 minutes when Jamie Murphy cut inside from the left and worked his way across first Dave Mackay, then Michael Duberry and finally Steven Anderson before guiding a low shot past Enckelman’s right hand.
The possession statistics showed that Saints didn’t have any problem getting hold of the ball, but the nearest they came to clawing their way back into the match after a nightmare of a start was a Craigan clearance hitting off Murray Davidson and forcing Randolph to clutch the ball under his bar, and a 25-yarder from the McDiarmid midfielder.Sutton specialJust after the half-hour mark Keith Lasley should have got Motherwell’s third when he took the ball past Mackay but dragged his shot wide.
Then on 35 minutes dangerman Murphy was again off and running at the Perth defence and his left-foot shot shaved the post.
They didn’t have long to wait for the third, however. It arrived on 39 minutes when a long kick out from Randolph was helped on by Francis Jeffers and John Sutton lashed a volley home from 30 yards out.
On the stroke of half-time defensive hesitancy that had characterised the Saints’ performance was nearly punished again by Sutton, this time from 12 yards closer.
Upsetting the odds against Hearts at Tynecastle and slugging it out in the mud at Brechin were made to count for nothing by 45 terrible minutes at Hampden.
Ring Of Fire, the tune that is synonomous for Liverpool fans with their famous Istanbul Champions League comeback against AC Milan from a similar mid-match scoreline, rang out as the teams made their way back on to the pitch for the second half.
Saints “huffed and puffed,” as their manager Derek McInnes put it, but there was never any likelihood that a team which is nearing double figures for league games without a goal, would get three in 45 minutes.
They had a decent penalty shout when Steven Hammell went through the back of Invincibile, and Davidson smacked the bar with a header from a Grainger corner late on, but the damage was done and the game long since lost.
This was the Saints’ eighth Scottish Cup semi-final, but in recent times it has more often than not been the Old Firm that have ended their final dream.
Though Motherwell were in good form, it was the best chance they have had in 20 years to make club history and go one step further than they’ve ever been before.
All phrases that have been regularly and rightly trotted out to describe St Johnstone this season. Until after the match when it mattered most, that is.
For the first half of Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final it was as if a team of impostors had taken the field for the Perth side.
Only those inside the Saints dressing room will know whether it was a case of stage fright on the big day, or if it was just a cruel coincidence that it all went horribly wrong for them at the worst possible time.
There was certainly no sign of nerves in the opening exchanges, as it was they who started brightest.
With just two minutes on the clock a Danny Grainger free-kick was helped on by a Danny Invincibile glancing header and had to be tipped over the bar by Darren Randolph.
It didn’t take long for the match to take a turn for the worse, though, as on five minutes Peter Enckelman punched fresh air from a Tom Hateley inswinging corner and Stephen Craigan was unmarked four yards out and couldn’t miss. It was Motherwell’s first attack.
Their second goal came on 14 minutes when Jamie Murphy cut inside from the left and worked his way across first Dave Mackay, then Michael Duberry and finally Steven Anderson before guiding a low shot past Enckelman’s right hand.
The possession statistics showed that Saints didn’t have any problem getting hold of the ball, but the nearest they came to clawing their way back into the match after a nightmare of a start was a Craigan clearance hitting off Murray Davidson and forcing Randolph to clutch the ball under his bar, and a 25-yarder from the McDiarmid midfielder.Sutton specialJust after the half-hour mark Keith Lasley should have got Motherwell’s third when he took the ball past Mackay but dragged his shot wide.
Then on 35 minutes dangerman Murphy was again off and running at the Perth defence and his left-foot shot shaved the post.
They didn’t have long to wait for the third, however. It arrived on 39 minutes when a long kick out from Randolph was helped on by Francis Jeffers and John Sutton lashed a volley home from 30 yards out.
On the stroke of half-time defensive hesitancy that had characterised the Saints’ performance was nearly punished again by Sutton, this time from 12 yards closer.
Upsetting the odds against Hearts at Tynecastle and slugging it out in the mud at Brechin were made to count for nothing by 45 terrible minutes at Hampden.
Ring Of Fire, the tune that is synonomous for Liverpool fans with their famous Istanbul Champions League comeback against AC Milan from a similar mid-match scoreline, rang out as the teams made their way back on to the pitch for the second half.
Saints “huffed and puffed,” as their manager Derek McInnes put it, but there was never any likelihood that a team which is nearing double figures for league games without a goal, would get three in 45 minutes.
They had a decent penalty shout when Steven Hammell went through the back of Invincibile, and Davidson smacked the bar with a header from a Grainger corner late on, but the damage was done and the game long since lost.
This was the Saints’ eighth Scottish Cup semi-final, but in recent times it has more often than not been the Old Firm that have ended their final dream.
Though Motherwell were in good form, it was the best chance they have had in 20 years to make club history and go one step further than they’ve ever been before.
All phrases that have been regularly and rightly trotted out to describe St Johnstone this season. Until after the match when it mattered most, that is.
For the first half of Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final it was as if a team of impostors had taken the field for the Perth side.
Only those inside the Saints dressing room will know whether it was a case of stage fright on the big day, or if it was just a cruel coincidence that it all went horribly wrong for them at the worst possible time.
There was certainly no sign of nerves in the opening exchanges, as it was they who started brightest.
With just two minutes on the clock a Danny Grainger free-kick was helped on by a Danny Invincibile glancing header and had to be tipped over the bar by Darren Randolph.
It didn’t take long for the match to take a turn for the worse, though, as on five minutes Peter Enckelman punched fresh air from a Tom Hateley inswinging corner and Stephen Craigan was unmarked four yards out and couldn’t miss. It was Motherwell’s first attack.
Their second goal came on 14 minutes when Jamie Murphy cut inside from the left and worked his way across first Dave Mackay, then Michael Duberry and finally Steven Anderson before guiding a low shot past Enckelman’s right hand.
The possession statistics showed that Saints didn’t have any problem getting hold of the ball, but the nearest they came to clawing their way back into the match after a nightmare of a start was a Craigan clearance hitting off Murray Davidson and forcing Randolph to clutch the ball under his bar, and a 25-yarder from the McDiarmid midfielder.Sutton specialJust after the half-hour mark Keith Lasley should have got Motherwell’s third when he took the ball past Mackay but dragged his shot wide.
Then on 35 minutes dangerman Murphy was again off and running at the Perth defence and his left-foot shot shaved the post.
They didn’t have long to wait for the third, however. It arrived on 39 minutes when a long kick out from Randolph was helped on by Francis Jeffers and John Sutton lashed a volley home from 30 yards out.
On the stroke of half-time defensive hesitancy that had characterised the Saints’ performance was nearly punished again by Sutton, this time from 12 yards closer.
Upsetting the odds against Hearts at Tynecastle and slugging it out in the mud at Brechin were made to count for nothing by 45 terrible minutes at Hampden.
Ring Of Fire, the tune that is synonomous for Liverpool fans with their famous Istanbul Champions League comeback against AC Milan from a similar mid-match scoreline, rang out as the teams made their way back on to the pitch for the second half.
Saints “huffed and puffed,” as their manager Derek McInnes put it, but there was never any likelihood that a team which is nearing double figures for league games without a goal, would get three in 45 minutes.
They had a decent penalty shout when Steven Hammell went through the back of Invincibile, and Davidson smacked the bar with a header from a Grainger corner late on, but the damage was done and the game long since lost.
This was the Saints’ eighth Scottish Cup semi-final, but in recent times it has more often than not been the Old Firm that have ended their final dream.
Though Motherwell were in good form, it was the best chance they have had in 20 years to make club history and go one step further than they’ve ever been before.