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Jason Cummings incurred the wrath of the Hibs’ fans at Hampden yesterday after he attempted a  ‘Panenka’ style penalty in the first half, but spectacularly failed  to emulate Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo’s goal against England at Euro 2012.

With the scores level, Hibs were awarded a penalty when Dundee United’s Coll Donaldson blocked a Fraser Fyvie cross with his arm.

Cummings, who had scored a penalty against Falkirk last Tuesday by firing an unstoppable strike high into the top corner of the net, elected to take this one, but this time his ‘dink’ floated just over the bar sparking groans and anger from the stands.

Both sides had chances to win the game in regulation time however both defences stood firm and the semi-final ended all square.

The question on everyone’s lips was whether Cummings would take another penalty and the confident youngster had no hesitation in putting himself forward to take the fourth.

By that stage, Hibs were 3-2 up and Cummings discovered that his penalty would be the decisive one. As he gathered the ball, he had a big smile on his face and calmly placed the ball on the spot before slotting the ball into the corner of the net, earning instant forgiveness from the Hibees’ faithful.

After the game he told BBC Scotland: “With my new barnet, I thought I was a bit more like Pirlo so I tried to dink it, but it didn’t come off.

“At the time I was thinking it wasn’t going to be our day. I was nervous in the shoot-out when I realised it could be the winning penalty but I was just buzzing when it went in.”

Photo by John Preece

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.