St. Mirren fans probably arrived at their places of work this morning with a smile from ear to ear. They were perhaps a bit sleep deprived after spending the night celebrating or, if you're like me, replaying Billy Mehmet's fantastic strike over and over in your mind. With one swift kick of the ball, the negativity that has been surrounding the club on and off the park was wiped out.
Every single Saint was outstanding last night, but Mehmet was perhaps even better than that. He harried for everything, regardless of which end or which side it was at. His flick near the corner flag in the second half was brilliant. Sadly, the BBC left it out of their highlights package, but you can see it again here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy2SO-Kxlqg
It was an emotional night for many Saints fans. From a personal point of view, I had tears in my eyes at full time and have been welling up reading the forums this morning and watching the BBC's highlights package (available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8494807.stm). Even just watching the coverage at half time in the other semi-final has almost set me off again.
If the players were brilliant last night, the fans were every bit as better (to quote Shuggy Murray). They made plenty of noise from start to finish and got louder and louder as the second half wore on.
Where did the performance against Hearts come from? Who knows - but it cannot be an isolated incident. Our league status is still very much up in the air and we need to start putting in more displays like that in the SPL. Preferably we'll take a few more chances so we don't have heart attacks when defenders try to be silly in their own box - yes David Barron, I'm talking to you!
But we can worry about the league next week. Let's just revel in the joy of last night. Everybody connected with the club deserves a cup final. As I write this, it'll almost certainly be against Rangers - and if we play like we did last night, who's to say John Potter won't be lifting that funny looking cup above his head at Hampden in March?