Nick Montgomery

Two late goals from Martin Boyle settled a compelling quarter-final that flowed from end to end.

The Paisley side had taken the lead through Scott Tanser, fell behind to quickfire second-half strikes from Elie Youan and Dylan Vente before Keanu Baccus made it 2-2.

Boyle’s double continued Montgomery’s positive start to life at Easter Road and he now has his first working trip to Hampden to look forward to.

He said: “It’s all about getting through to a semi-final at Hampden so I’m really proud of everyone involved.

“I was at Scotland versus England a couple of weeks ago and thought the atmosphere was amazing – apart from the boos!

“But I never went there as a player or coach, so I’m really looking forward to that.

“The boys thoroughly deserved it, so I’m really proud of their effort.

“I thought it was a really good game of football, a good cup tie under the lights.

“I saw great character from the boys and I thought we deserved to win the game.

“We created more than enough chances to win two games. But fair play to St Mirren, they came as the form team in the league.

“They’ve had a fantastic start to the season but we saw that as an opportunity to put an end to that run. I’m really proud of the boys’ effort because it has been a big couple of weeks.

“I thought that performance epitomised everything in terms of team spirit. And in the second half we played some great stuff.”

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson felt it was a chance missed for his team, who lost for the first time in 11 games.

He said: “It’s an opportunity missed. We were superb in the first half. We had total control of the game and it should have been 2-0.

“But then it was as if we went ‘that was really good, let’s not do that again’ for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Ultimately, we conceded goals that we don’t concede.

“If you lose four goals you’re going to lose football matches. But I can’t be too hard on the players because they showed good fighting spirit and quality.

“Individual errors and bad decision making have cost us. We didn’t deserve to go through but we won’t feel sorry for ourselves. We will reset and come out fighting again on Saturday.”

Midfielder John Lundstram bundled in the opener in the 23rd minute after goalkeeper David Marshall had saved a penalty from captain James Tavernier before Boyle was taken away on a stretcher after landing following a duel with defender John Souttar.

Hibs defender Jordan Obita was sent off in the 68th minute for picking up the second of two yellow cards for using an arm to stop substitute Rabbi Matondo before Nathan Moriah-Welsh was shown a straight red by referee Steven McLean three minutes later for a two-footed challenge on Lundstram.

Striker Fabio Silva added a second as Rangers joined Aberdeen and Celtic in the semi-final draw, with Championship side Morton hosting Hearts on Monday night.

Hibs boss Montgomery gave a positive post-match update on Boyle, saying: “I’ve just had a report that Martin is stable and that’s the most important thing.

“Football is just a game and while Martin’s an important player for us, he’s a human being too.

“I think it’s a bit of concussion and maybe a little bit of neck pain. Fingers crossed he makes a speedy recovery because he was in a bit of pain.”

Montgomery was unimpressed with Lundstram’s reaction to Moriah-Welsh’s tackle.

He said: “I haven’t seen Jordan’s incident to be honest. I know he was on a yellow. He tried to hold Matondo off but apparently he’s caught him on the back of the head with his arm.

“Jordan is an experienced player so, if he has done something that is deemed a yellow card, you don’t want that.

“Nathan is just 21 years old, he’s new to first-team football. And, to be honest, it was right in front of me.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for John Lundstram. He’s a top, top player. But I thought the way he went down, Nathan didn’t catch him.

“I’ve seen that one back and he’s gone across him to try to block him playing a ball down the line, probably knock it out for a throw-in. But John has gone down.

“And the referee was very quick to give the card. To be honest, I was really surprised he didn’t go to the VAR monitor to have a look, considering it was three metres from where the incident happened.”

Rangers boss Philippe Clement called for “reckless” tackles to be taken out of the game as he discussed Moriah-Welsh’s red card.

He said: “If you put a hand or an arm in the face you can get a yellow, that everybody knows.

“The (Moriah-Welsh) tackle was a few yards away from me. It is a reckless tackle with the studs in front and it doesn’t matter then if you break a leg or not.

“It is just reckless. I think it is important to get that kind of tackle out of the game.

“In the last couple of weeks sometimes when we didn’t get the red card and I was not happy about that.

“I think tackles like that are not good for Scottish football, English football, Belgian football, German football. Players need to know if you tackle like that you get a red card.

“It is for nobody good because it is a danger to injure someone if you go in like that.”

The Belgian was frustrated with Dujon Sterling and his replacement Ross McCausland having to come off and both will be assessed ahead of Thursday night’s Europa League last-16 game against Benfica at Ibrox, with the tie balanced at 2-2 following last week’s game in Lisbon.

Ryan Jack, Abdallah Sima, Oscar Cortes, Kieran Dowell and Danilo are also carrying injuries.

Clement said: “I am not happy, of course, that Dujon and Ross had to come off. It is not a good thing.

“We are going to see in the next couple of days if they are going to be available for Thursday or not.”