ALLAN MOORE had spoken before this match about needing a change of fortune to get him out of the personal and professional doldrums but, as it turned out, the Gods were just getting started on the beleaguered Morton manager.

Moore has recently suffered the loss of brother Steven, a break-in at his house and has presided over a run of results which have left his job hanging by a thread, and there was more of the same kind of misfortune heading in his direction last night courtesy of John McKendrick.

After the heroics at Celtic Park last month, the Cappielow side had taken another SPFL Premiership side to the cusp of extra time before the referee interpreted contact between Jonathan Page and the hitherto quiet Stevie May to be worthy of a free-kick 30 yards out. The home supporters breathed a sigh of relief when May's first attempt struck the wall, only to have to relive it all again when the official deemed Nacho Novo to have encroached and booked him.

May's second attempt, from what appeared to be a few yards closer to goal, had a bit of swerve about it, but goalkeeper Nicolas Caraux - one of the star performers that evening at Parkhead - spilled it at the feet of Gary McDonald and Morton's hopes of reaching a first major semi-final for 33 years had evaporated, leaving McKendrick to run a gauntlet of abuse from angry home players and fans on his way up the tunnel.

If it was little wonder that Moore skipped media duties, leaving veteran centre-back Mark McLaughlin to tell the tale. "It probably just summed up our season, luckwise," McLaughlin said. "We didn't think it was a free kick, and we didn't think that Nacho encroached that much; he was right next to me. The referee didn't say anything because there were a lot of people having a go at him, albeit in the right manner, without being disrespectful. It was a bit harsh but we move on to the next game and hopefully we can turn it around."

Unsurprisingly perhaps, Tommy Wright offered a different perspective with St Johnstone's manager content to shrug off a bad night at the office with the consolation of a place in the last four. "It looked like it was going to extra time, but with Stevie May standing over the free kick anything can happen. The referee handled the situation well. I am sure Allan will have a different perspective. But if he [Novo] is too close to the ball, he is too close to the ball. The referee has to give it. Whether some other referee tonight doesn't give it is irrespective.

"Our chances of winning the cup now? One in four." For the record, those are pretty decent odds for their first national cup, in a competition in which they lost two finals in 1969 and 1998, the latter of which was against Rangers at Celtic Park.

From the start, Wright brought back namesake and mainstay Frazer after he missed the SPFL Premiership win against Motherwell because of suspension, with Chris Millar - a former Morton player and current youth coach - in midfield. Despite the best efforts of Morton fan and Radio Clyde DJ George Bowie on the mic, it was a decent visiting support who seemed the more enthusiastic at kick off, releasing blue flares into the Inverclyde night air.

Additional encouragement for the home fans was not long in coming, however, as a wicked free-kick from Dougie Imrie caused apoplexy in the box and McLaughlin's header flew straight at Alan Mannus when either side would have opened the scoring. David Wotherspoon dragged a 20-yard shot wide, as did Nigel Hasselbaink, but the visitors were being held in check by the hosts' resolute defence, even after a rejig in which Page replaced Marc Fitzpatrick.

A half which already featured some capricious refereeing decisions ended with Morton forcing a series of corners before St Johnstone required their own defensive reinforcements during the interval, Tam Scobbie arriving at the interval for Wright.

A moment of rare quality came when Wotherspoon struck the outside of a post from 25 yards but the last 10 minutes had no shortage of drama. Novo had a shot deflected wide, then Millar almost bit the hand which used to feed him when he forced Caraux to save his low shot.

And so to the conclusion. Morton conceded in the 93rd-minute against Raith Rovers on Saturday to leave them six points adrift at the bottom of the Championship but even that must have seemed like a picnic compared to this one.