IT was a kick that had about as much chance of going in as any of the 13 that peppered Jamie MacDonald's goal.

Skulking off a sun-drenched Hampden surface, the forlorn figure of Jason Cummings was a sight to behold, especially for the clutch of Falkirk supporters jubilantly dancing just yards away from him in the shadows of the national stadium's vast south stand.

On the day of the Scottish Grand National, the Hibernian forward's race had been run. His team out of ideas having been stung by a Craig Sibbald header, Cummings had run out of time as he was beckoned back to the bench to be replaced by Dominique Malonga. In an act borne out of frustration rather than petulance, the 19-year-old swung his right peg at a rogue bottle of water minding its own business in the Falkirk technical area, sending its contents spraying across the trackside. Yet another shot off target.

It was fitting that Wayward Prince was the horse that triumphed in Ayr given what took place up the road in Glasgow. Of those 13 efforts Alan Stubbs' Hibs managed to create in their William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final, only three of them troubled the Falkirk goal. They hit the bar from seven yards, smacked the post from the edge of the area and wasted a header just a couple of feet out. In what looked like a one-horse race for most of the afternoon, it was yet another occasion for the Easter Road club to fall in this old competition, this time at the second last hurdle.

"It was a mixture of things," said Cummings on his wayward kick as he exited the field of play. "The fact that I came off meant that I couldn't influence the game - that was annoying. Plus, the fact that we were getting beat. I just wasn't happy.

"It just felt like unfortunate. On another day we could have gone three goals up easily. You've just got to put it down to bad luck. On other occasions it has happened for us but it just wasn't our day today.

"We had a million good chances, we got into good areas, and I thought we were the better team, and we deserved to go through. But goals win games and they scored more than us."

That should simply read 'They scored'. Hibernian's travails in the Scottish Cup the oldest and fairest cup competition of them all, is of course well documented. They haven't won it for 102 years. For the Hearts fans among you, that is also 41,268 days, 990,432 hours or 59,425,920 minutes.

Of all the near misses over the years, however, this one was particularly hard to take. After almost scoring within the first minute after a mixture of superb reactions and sheer luck stopped David McCracken putting the ball into his own net and stopping Farid El Alagui just two seconds later, the tone was set for one-sided contest.

Chance after chance came and went as the clocked ticked down and Falkirk's resistance heightened. Scott Allan hit the bar and Dylan McGeouch fluffed a glorious chance as their momentum and punch wilted in the scorching sunlight. Moments later it was his slack play at the back that allowed Sibbald to show him how it is done.

"We are very gutted," added Cummings. "We'll not have a better chance to get to the final of the cup. I thought we weren't bad today - we deserved it - but goals win games and they went and scored. We had many chances and we didn't take them - it's as simple as that. It wasn't good enough for us.

"Our first couple of chances, I thought it was going to come for us. But it just felt like it was going to be one of those days."

Hibs can ill afford any more. A month ago this was a campaign that looked unshakable. Three league defeats and a cup exit later, Stubbs' team are now playing catch up. They are now relying on Rangers slipping up at some point and their own drive forward not being derailed by their latest bump in the road if they are to claim second place. It is a stark reality Cummings is well aware of.

"We've got a game on Wednesday in the league, and we've got to try to get second place and promotion, so we've got to get our chins up," he said of their trip to Livingston. He [the manager] was fairly positive. He said to us, 'right, we've got to go again.' He wanted to get our minds off it, and on to Wednesday. Our season is not over, we've got to concentrate on the league now.

But it will take a couple of days to get this out of our system. It's scarring, but the boys are used to it now.

"The fans won't be happy but we tried our best today. It's a shame we never gave them anything to cheer about. Hopefully we can give them something to cheer about in the league."