Dundee United manager Ray McKinnon was as angry as he has been all season as his team blew a great chance to reach the Betfred Cup semi-finals.
The Tangerines lost 2-1 to Greenock Morton at Cappielow and thus squandered a golden opportunity to get to the last four, with all the money and prestige that brings.
Once again they lost terrible goals, to Jai Quitongo on 24 minutes and Thomas O’Ware on 31 – the latter yet another header off across into the box.
They did get one back from Nick van der Velden but a miserable night ended with them out of the cup.
McKinnon accused his side of only producing “tippy-tappy football.”
He said: “I am pretty disappointed with them tonight and I have told them that.
“In the first half we just wanted to play tippy-tappy football with no purpose.
“We never threatened them enough for me.
“We had a lot of possession but did nothing with it.
“Football is not just about possession – you need to threaten teams.
“We lost a horrific goal – the first one was so avoidable – and were caught with a setpiece.
“We worked all week on defending crosses but I think it’s about desire. They (Morton) wanted to head that ball more than we did.
“That’s frustrating that we are not matching that.
“As for the second half, I’m not going to give them any credit because effectively I don’t think they were any better than in the first.
“The quality wasn’t there and we were ragged with no penetration,” added McKinnon
“That’s not good enough for me and the players are certainly aware of that right now.
“That performance won’t be tolerated again, not with the players we have.
“There needs to be a purpose to your play and we lacked that tonight.”
Jubilant Morton manager Jim Duffy was delighted to be through to Thursday’s last-four draw at Pittodrie.
He said: “I thought it was a terrific cup-tie.
“It is a fantastic night for this club.
“It was 1978 the last time Morton was in a national semi-final so that shows just how tough it is to achieve that.
“We have beaten a top-class side tonight so the boys deserve it.”
