It doesn’t get much more painful in football than losing a big cup game, particularly with stakes as high as they were on Thursday night for St Johnstone.
Attention now switches to how the Perth side will respond to their LASK loss when they return to league business against St Mirren on Sunday.
Courier Sport looks back on five memorable bouncebacks to hearten Saints fans.
1 After losing a League Cup semi-final 4-0 to Hearts in October, 1962
Saints had been relegated into the old Second Division the previous season so getting to this semi-final was a significant achievement.
Being thrashed by the eventual winners at Easter Road could have knocked their promotion bid off-track but it had the opposite effect.
Saints went on an unbeaten run of 13 games, which included 10 wins, one of them a 7-0.
It wasn’t until the second last day of March that they lost a league match and the title was secured.
2 After losing to Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup in January, 1971
Willie Ormond’s team had played in a League Cup final but a proper Scottish Cup run had eluded them.
So for arguably the best-ever St Johnstone side in the club’s history up until that point to be knocked out by Second Division Raith Rovers after a Muirton Park replay was a crushing disappointment.
The response was emphatic though – five league wins in a row, including one against Celtic.
1971 | Jim Pearson, Henry Hall and Ian McPhee are all on target in a 3-2 win for St Johnstone against Celtic at Muirton Park. pic.twitter.com/Sv8y38QlTW
— Saints On This Day (@SaintsOTD) February 6, 2021
That led to a third-place finish and Saints’ first European campaign.
3 After losing to Stranraer in the Challenge Cup final in November, 1996
A message to young Saints fans – there was a time when your club couldn’t win a national trophy, even the wee one.
Paul Sturrock had overcome relegation and the embarrassment of losing to Stenhousemuir in the Scottish Cup in 1995 to build a side that narrowly missed out on promotion in 95/96.
They were heavy favourites to beat Stranraer in the Challenge Cup final at Broadwood but underperformed in terrible conditions and Danny Griffin’s own-goal decided the game.
This was a proper team, though.
St. Johnstone 7-2 Dundee, on this day in 1997.
Believe it was Leigh Jenkinson scoring this screamer… pic.twitter.com/eoBmckB3dS
— St Johnstone Fans (@StJohnstoneFans) January 1, 2021
The next nine games were won – seven without conceding a goal – in a stunning spell of form that peaked with the famous 7-2 defeat of local rivals Dundee.
The First Division championship was won with some ease.
4 After losing to Hibs in the League Cup semi-final in January, 2007
Of all the many cup semis Saints have lost, this one was arguably the most unjust.
Owen Coyle’s First Division team deserved to beat Hibs at Tynecastle but were knocked-out in extra-time.
That was on the Wednesday night and on the Saturday afternoon they faced a daunting trip to Falkirk in the Scottish Cup last-16.
A 3-0 win, with Martin Hardie, Kevin James and Peter MacDonald scoring the goals (past Kasper Schmeichel, no less), spoke to the strength of character in that dressing room.
It proved to be the start of another run to a semi-final (and another last-four hard luck story, this time against Celtic).
5 After losing to FK Trakai in July, 2017
The current Saints team only need to look back four years ago to the club’s last Euro exit for inspiration of what can happen next.
Trakai of Lithuania weren’t anywhere near Galatasaray or LASK standard and getting defeated by them home and away was a dispiriting way to start the season for Tommy Wright’s men.
There was nothing dispiriting about the league results that followed, however.
Habitual slow-starters Saints won their first three Premiership matches, with Michael O’Halloran scoring four goals in doing so.
He got the player of the month award for August and Wright the managerial accolade.
