Dunfermline defender Scott Wilson bemoaned his side's failure to build on a positive first half in their Tennent's Scottish Cup final defeat by Celtic.

Mark Burchill missed a good opening early on in a close first period before the Hoops gradually increased the pressure and scored the only goal through Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe in the 85th minute.

Wilson felt the cup was there for the taking at the interval but admitted the Pars had not done enough to win.

The 30-year-old said: "I thought we had a chance. Going into half-time I thought we were probably the better team.

"It's not often that happens against the Old Firm in cup finals.

"At half-time the Celtic fans booed their team and the Celtic fans don't often boo their team. I felt confident at half-time."

But he added: "We never really started in the second half. We did all right but nothing worthy of a cup final.

"I could feel the goal coming in the second half. I felt we were just hanging on, we never really had a chance in the second half."

Wilson was distraught at the nature of Perrier Doumbe's winner - the first goal the right-back has scored in his senior career.

The Cameroon international slid in to poke home Craig Beattie's deflected cross.

"It was a terrible goal," Wilson said. "Celtic had a few chances throughout the game but I thought we had got away with it and rode our luck a bit in the second half.

"It's probably the scrappiest goal we have lost for a long time and it has won them the cup.

"It was just an awful goal to lose - if they score a 30-yarder into the top corner you can accept it but the goal we lost, I'm not happy with."

While the former Rangers defender was disappointed his side fell away, he realised it was on the cards because of the constraints on manager Stephen Kenny's team selection.

The Pars were without the cup-tied Tam McManus and Stephen Glass, on-loan Celtic winger Jim O'Brien and the suspended Gary Mason - four players who were instrumental in Athletic's spirited but doomed battle to beat relegation from the Bank of Scotland Premier League.

The likes of Darren Young and Scott Morrison came in after missing many games through injury.

Wilson said: "A lot of the guys hadn't played a lot in the last few weeks. There were a lot of tired legs out there.

"We were missing our whole midfield apart from Adam Hammill. We have mixed and matched.

"We took Scott Muirhead out of left-back and put him to left midfield and he has probably been our best player at left-back for a long time.

"It was mis-shaped team but we got on with it."