We all enjoy a bit of mystique around cup matches and following Hibs’ long-awaited success last summer the focus has switched to Dundee.

As of next season expect to see every greater effort made to investigate the truth behind the curse supposedly placed on the Scottish Cup that has denied the club victory since their sole success in 2010

The version of the legend some of us grew up with was that a gypsy woman was offended when the trophy was placed in the window of an undertaker’s owned by one of the club’s directors, when her husband’s body was in their care and decreed that it would never return.

There was a period in the eighties when some solace was offered to Dundee supporters who knew that tale that a perverse consequence seemed to be that it was denying serial cup runners up and city rivals United, but such consolation has long since gone.

Sport is, of course, riddled with superstition so there may also be a feeling that Paul Hartley, Dundee’s manager, jinxed his tenure when he stated, a little over two years ago, that he believed he could bring silverware to the club during his time in office.

They had just drawn Celtic at the time, who duly knocked them out of that season’s Scottish Cup, an exit to Dunfermline followed in their first outing in the following season’s League Cup and Rangers were also a lower division club when they thrashed Dundee in last year’s Scottish Cup quarter-finals before, in this season’s League Cup, they were joint top scorers in the pool stages which replaced the opening round, but departed under the new competition rules, thanks to a penalty shoot-out at East Fife and a loss at Peterhead.

This, then, was just the latest tale of the unexpected with which their followers have had to contend, the pain accentuated by then opposition being captained by one who had given excellent service at Dens Park, Gary Irvine and their opening goal scored by another, John Sutton. It was certainly clear from the reaction of the home camp that they had not seen this coming.

“That was totally unacceptable and I could be here all day trying to sum that up,” said captain Paul McGowan, who had put in his usual energetic shift, but had also contributed to his team’s demise by putting in the challenge of man of the match Stevie Mallan that saw the ball rebound into Sutton’s path to let him calmly slot that opener.

If the identity of the scorer of the first goal made that a particularly cruel blow, the second was also hard to take on the evidence of visiting manager Jack Ross who reckoned Jack Baird's perfect first time strike from Stevie Mallan's cut-back was so unlikely that his team-mates had jokingly suggested the defender was trying to control the ball.

However Dundee were blaming no one but themselves, McGowan going so far as to say it had probably been their poorest performance in his three years at the club since joining them from of all places St Mirren, the home team having made only a few chances which they could not take through a combination of poor finishing and fine goal-keeping from visiting debutant Billy O’Brien.

“It was not good enough and we need to have a hard look at ourselves,” he continued.

“I can’t make any excuses or anything like that. We have trained hard for two weeks and we sent out the same team that beat St Johnstone comfortably and then we go and produce that… it was totally unacceptable.

“The sad thing is, they wanted it more. That shouldn’t be as our home form has been good and St Mirren have been struggling in the Championship, but they came here and they wanted it more. It is not good enough and we have embarrassed the club with that performance.

“That is probably the worst one we have put in since I have been here.”

Having had more than his share of troubles off the pitch McGowan has particular reason to be grateful to the man, who brought him to the club and he indicated that he and the supporters, some of whom were fierce in their criticism of Hartley on the final whistle, deserve better.

“The manager worked tirelessly all week setting us out and we go and produce that,” McGowan observed.

“It’s actually difficult to put the finger on what we are doing as it was the same team that wiped the floor with St Johnstone. You can understand the fans’ frustration as it is exactly the same team. They have paid good money to turn up and watch that.

“The players need to go home and have a good look at themselves in the mirror, me, everybody who played as that’s just not acceptable.”

It was, though, a desperately needed boost for a St Mirren side whose manager Jack Ross reckoned has not been getting the results their performances deserve, a sentiment echoed by Irvine, who reversed the career path taken by McGowan when he headed to Paisley a year ago.

“Obviously with the way things have been going, we're looking for that wee bit of confidence to take into the rest of the season,” he observed.

“So we would look to this result to do that and take the positives into the next league game.”