Ryan Porteous insists he has unfinished business at Hibs after apologising to the fans for falling flat in the Scottish Cup final.
An insipid Hampden display saw St Johnstone make it a cup double thanks to Shaun Rooney’s first half header.
They could have been further ahead after a Porteous mistake allowed Chris Kane in on goal, only t be fouled by Paul McGinn.
Matt Macey saved Glen Middleton’s penalty and Kane’s rebound, but Jack Ross’ team didn’t look like taking advantage and grabbing an equaliser.
As a boyhood Hibee, Porteous feels the punters’ pain at another big game lost.
He said: “We have achieved so much and come a long way in a short space of time. We have done well in the cup competitions, you can’t fault the players’ efforts, but I just feel we have let the fans and gaffer down on occasions.
“There are a lot of boys in there who will go on to big things. They’ll get other opportunities but it’s still gut-wrenching to lose out in a final.
“It’s part and parcel of football, we just have to dust ourselves down because we have a big pre-season ahead of us.
“There are boys who have big international games coming up and they can’t be too down for too long. We just need to try to recover from this.
“We have a very close group in there. I’ve not been in many other dressing rooms but it will be hard to beat our one.
“We have a great group of boys and I am gutted for everybody in there. We had the need-to-win mentality but it just wasn’t to be at the end.
“At the goal, you could argue Kane was sitting on the ball for a few seconds and it could have been a foul but when the ball comes in we have to deal with it.
“It was one of those days but credit where it is due because St Johnstone have been fantastic in cup competitions this season and deserved their win.
“We have a young squad mixed with experience as well. Some of the boys have been through that heartbreak before. Some of them will go through it again but I’m one of the boys who wants to learn from it.
“Next time I don’t want to be in a situation like this again. Next time I want to take advantage of things.
“But I also want to learn from this and that’s all you can do. I don’t think you should always learn by losing, sometimes you learn from doing things right. But this is the situation just now and there are a lot of boys in there who will go on to big things and be in this position again. It’s about rectifying that.”
Transfer speculation is sure to hot up now the season has finished and Porteous is still being linked with a move to Millwall.
But he initiated immediately after a cup final defeat wasn’t the time to talk transfers.
He added: “As I have said before it is a lifelong dream to win a medal with Hibs and for it to be snatched away from you like that then I would always feel like I have some unfinished business if I leave it at that. But every player wants to play at the top level.
“I just don’t think this is the right time to talk about it.
“After such a big disappointment I think it would be disrespectful to the fans if we started to talk about players leaving.”
