THIS morning's postmortem into Hibs Tennent's Scottish Cup mauling by arch-rivals Hearts was probably pretty short, perhaps amounting to little more than a cursory glance at the respective teamsheets from the Hampden semi-final.

For the names contained within will, as far as Easter Road boss Tony Mowbray is concerned, tell the story of why there was a four-goal gap between the sides at the end of the 90 minutes.

While Hearts found themselves shorn of Julien Brellier and Roman Bednar because of suspension, Mowbray was forced to grapple with the fact that he was without more than half of his regular first-team.

Top scorer Derek Riordan was suspended, and Guillaume Beuzelin is a long-term injury victim. Scott Brown, Chris Killen and Michael Stewart all failed late fitness tests, while Dean Shiels' recovery from his eye operation also kept him on the sidelines.

And, of course, there was the £1.6 million transfer of Garry O'Connor to Lokomotiv Moscow. An ill-timed move, everyone would agree, but one which, given the financial incentive on offer to both Hibs and the player himself, proved too tempting to reject.

Just what impact the presence of one - or even all - of these players might have had on this particular match is obviously now merely a matter of conjecture, but when you are operating with as small a squad as Mowbray has, it is a question of some relevance.

The contrasting financial approach taken by the Capital clubs has had a direct effect on the playing field.

Hearts, thanks to Vladimir Romanov's backing, brought in 11 players during the January transfer window to strengthen what was already a strong squad.

Hibs, on the other hand, operate under a much tighter budget. It obliges Mowbray to bring through young players, as he has done with commendable speed, and to confine his dealings in the transfer market to those players available without a fee being paid.

Mowbray insists he has no gripe with the restrictions under which he was to work, having taken the job as Hibs manager fully aware of the approach the club was taking - namely, to operate at break-even each season.

No envious eyes are cast at others, although it goes without saying Mowbray wouldn't decline the offer of more cash to spend in developing his squad. But among the haves and have nots, it was a cruel twist of fate which saw him without so many key players for such an important match.

He said: "We played the very best team we had available to us. The teams with the most resources win the League, that's why Chelsea are top of the Premiership and Manchester United are not far behind.

"That's why Celtic are top of the SPL and Hearts are pushing Rangers, it happens across Europe, across the world - that's football."

Mowbray hinted he'd like to see some sort of cap on spending introduced saying: "I do not know if things need to be done to adjust that," before quickly adding: "That's not for me to say, but the teams with resources inevitably win.

"Hearts were missing a couple of players but they had international players replacing international players. Good luck to them if they have taken that road. Mr Romanov is putting his finances in and he is bringing in quality players, and quality players win football matches.

"We will keep working, trying to produce players and on any given day we can get results as we did in the fourth round against Rangers at Ibrox. Then you come here [Hampden] hoping a similar sort of thing happens, but it was just a little too far for us."

Referring to the injury crisis, he added: "I would not anticipate having five or six of what I would call our first-team starting players injured at the one time.

"But that was the way it transpired with this big football match coming up. Let's hope Scott Brown plays 40-odd games next season and Guillaume Beuzelin stays fit all year.

"When you don't have your best players on the pitch you don't win games on a consistent level, and this season we've had long spells of key players missing, going right back to Gary Caldwell breaking ribs and puncturing a lung in the second game."

Taken from the Scotsman