Manager Nick Montgomery praised the character of his players after Hibernian came from behind to defeat St Mirren 4-2 and land a Viaplay Cup semi-final tie against Aberdeen.
Two late goals from Martin Boyle settled a compelling quarter-final that flowed from end to end.
The Paisley side had taken the lead through Scott Tanser, fell behind to quickfire second-half strikes from Elie Youan and Dylan Vente before Keanu Baccus made it 2-2.
Boyle’s double continued Montgomery’s positive start to life at Easter Road and he now has his first working trip to Hampden to look forward to.
He said: “It’s all about getting through to a semi-final at Hampden so I’m really proud of everyone involved.
“I was at Scotland versus England a couple of weeks ago and thought the atmosphere was amazing – apart from the boos!
“But I never went there as a player or coach, so I’m really looking forward to that.
“The boys thoroughly deserved it, so I’m really proud of their effort.
“I thought it was a really good game of football, a good cup tie under the lights.
“I saw great character from the boys and I thought we deserved to win the game.
“We created more than enough chances to win two games. But fair play to St Mirren, they came as the form team in the league.
“They’ve had a fantastic start to the season but we saw that as an opportunity to put an end to that run. I’m really proud of the boys’ effort because it has been a big couple of weeks.
“I thought that performance epitomised everything in terms of team spirit. And in the second half we played some great stuff.”
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson felt it was a chance missed for his team, who lost for the first time in 11 games.
He said: “It’s an opportunity missed. We were superb in the first half. We had total control of the game and it should have been 2-0.
“But then it was as if we went ‘that was really good, let’s not do that again’ for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Ultimately, we conceded goals that we don’t concede.
“If you lose four goals you’re going to lose football matches. But I can’t be too hard on the players because they showed good fighting spirit and quality.
“Individual errors and bad decision making have cost us. We didn’t deserve to go through but we won’t feel sorry for ourselves. We will reset and come out fighting again on Saturday.”
