Morton 0 Alloa 1: Visitors hang on by coat-tails

With three Petrofac Training Cup ties providing an outlet for punters desperate to sate their football fix, this slightly fortunate win against a Morton side a league below them booked Alloa's place in the last four, alongside Stranraer and Livingston, with Rangers and East Fife meeting next month to find out who will join them.

You might have thought the victorious manager would have been overjoyed about such an achievement, which arrived courtesy of Ryan McCord's 88th-minute header.

But instead Smith, a close friend of opposite number Jim Duffy from the years they spent together at Dundee, gave the impression of a man who was quietly seething about the standard of his side's play.

And not without reason: for a side composed enough to take the scalp of Hibernian in the Championship a week ago, this was a fairly pedestrian performance which would surely have been punished had second-half Morton substitute Reece Hands had his shooting boots on. The Englishman somehow contrived to spurn four inviting second-half chances, at least two of which fell into the glaring category.

"I'm glad to be in the semi-finals and we kept a clean sheet," said Smith. "We have played better but I don't want to take anything away from Morton today. At least we are creating chances, which is a positive thing. I worked under Jim and I know how well he has his team playing. We knew it was going to be difficult but we also made it difficult for ourselves."

Morton have never won this competition in any of its guises, and this will not be their year either. Duffy, who had local boy and deadline-day loan signing Robbie Crawford making his debut, felt there were positives to take from this game, but accused his side of naivete.

In addition to a bit of experience, a clinical finisher to get on the end of things might have helped. On reflection, either Declan McManus, on loan from Aberdeen but posted on international duty with the Scotland Under-21s, or the injured Andrew Barrowman might have made a telling difference.

"It did look like it was going to be extra time," said Duffy. "But we missed a couple of snips - no doubt about that. Nico [Caraux] had one great save in the first half but we have had three unbelievable chances and missed all three of them.

"When you do that all it takes is a little lapse in concentration to put you out of the cup and that is what happened. We were better than last week but in cup competitions it is not about how good you are, it is about who is in the hat for the next round."

It wasn't exactly duffel coat weather and perhaps the warm, pleasant conditions contributed to a sleepy opening. Indeed, it was fully half an hour before the first talking point arrived.

Stefan Milojevic, so incensed by referee Des Roache's non-award of a penalty for a handball against Daryll Meggat that he was booked for dissent then immediately lost concentration at the other end, requiring to be bailed out superbly by his French goalkeeper Caraux from Greig Spence's strike. Sympathy or not, his manager decided the Serb's inability to channel his frustrations meant he had become a liability to his team and consequently he was kept inside at half-time.

Hands also came on for the injured Ricki Lamie and it didn't take long for his personal nightmare to commence. After two openings early in the half, things only went from bad to worse.

There was a fresh air shot from a yard out, then an apparently simple finish into the side-netting after good work from his fellow substitute David McNeil.

To be fair Liam Buchanan also usually converts openings like the one he blazed wastefully over during an entertainingly open second period, before the winner duly arrived, via McCord's close- range header and a fine cross from Mark Docherty. The ball was nudged over the line from all of two yards.

The way this game had gone it was as a surprise that he didn't miss it.