Hearts ace blasts decision to play at Fir Park

But the defender admitted that Hearts only had themselves to blame as they crashed out at the semi-final stage after a stunning strike from Saints' Billy Mehmet consigned them to a 1-0 defeat.

The patchwork pitch in Lanarkshire looked in bad nick before the match even kicked off, with both goalmouth areas having to be re-laid along with a section in the middle of the park – not to mention the copious amounts of sand sprinkled on top.

And the surface was so bad throughout the 90 minutes that even Hearts fitness coach Tam Ritchie and Saints boss Gus MacPherson were seen racing on during breaks in play to stamp down divots.

Zaliukas was fuming that the game had been played on such a poor surface and insisted that there was a real danger of serious injury for both sets of players.

"The conditions weren't the best but we know that it was the same for both teams, it was not a good pitch. Congratulations to whoever decided to play this game over here, the semi-finals. Thank you to them," he said with more than a touch of sarcasm. "With every ball you did not know where to expect it to bounce, the pitch was too soft, it was the worst I have ever played on.

"Obviously you want to stop any holes in the pitch that you possibly can because all of the players know that there could be a lot of injuries. I think it was luck for us that there weren't."

The match was only Jim Jefferies' second in charge following the shock departure of former Tynecastle manager Csaba Laszlo last weekend, and Zaliukas admitted that he and some of his team-mates were still in shock at the events of the previous seven days.

Zaliukas had struck up a close relationship with Laszlo but, having lost 1-0 to St Johnstone in the league on Saturday and followed that up with defeat to the other Saints last night, the defender is keen to give his new boss his first victory sooner, rather than later.

The Tynecastle side do not have a game this Saturday as it is Scottish Cup weekend and Hearts were knocked out of that competition earlier this month by Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

They get back to action next Wednesday when they travel to Parkhead to face Celtic and Zaliukas is determined to get back to winning ways, adding: "It was unexpected to hear about Csaba but, over here, everything is possible. It only happened a few days before the semi-final.

"I think we are all learning not to be surprised by anything now but everyone was still surprised when Csaba left.

"Obviously we want to give the manager his first victory as soon as possible and now we have just the league to focus on. That is important for us because we want to finish in the top six.

"I have not had the pleasure of training with him yet, I think that today might be the first day for me."

Despite their poor fortune in recent weeks though, Zaliukas believes that a place in the top six of the SPL come the end of the season is still well within their grasp. The Jambos have ten league game to play before the league splits and the defender continued: "If we can get better results and victories than other teams then we can still finish in the top six. Like I said, everything is possible."

Meanwhile Saints hitman Mehmet believes that his strike was one of the best goals that he has ever scored.

The striker produced an absolute beauty, curling the ball high into the net behind the diving Marian Kello from 20 yards after 51 minutes to send the Paisley side through to the cup final at Hampden on Saturday 21 February.

Mehmet has proved to be something of a cup specialist this season, bagging seven goals, while he has only netted three in the league.

He was delighted to add another goal to his tally last night and said: "It was up there with the best that I have scored and obviously it was probably the most important goal that I have ever scored as well. I have scored a few in the cup this season, I just have to try to take that form into the league now."

THE KEY MOMENTS FROM FIR PARK

24 mins: Hearts suffered a blow when Ismael Bouzid went off injured and was replaced by Dawid Kucharski

28 mins: In Hearts' only real chance in the opening 45 minutes, Gordon Smith sent a shot wide on the turn

51 mins: After Andrew Driver had lost his footing on an awful surface, Jack Ross fed Billy Mehmet and he produced the game's only real piece of quality as he beat Marian Kello with a curling shot from 25 yards

57 mins: Kello kept Hearts in the game when he denied Andy Dorman after the midfielder was clean through

74 mins: As St Mirren tried to shoot themselves in the foot by failing to clear deep inside the box, Nade sent a left-foot shot just wide

76 mins: With Hearts building up a bit of momentum, Driver cut into the box from the left but saw his cross-cum-shot intercepted by John Potter with an exceptional piece of defending

78 mins: If Hearts were going to get an equaliser, it looked as though it would stem from the left and, on this occasion, Wallace got forward to cut the ball back to Nade only for the Frenchman to again send his shot wide

Martin Dempster