Alan Stubbs says he's determined to avoid experiencing another loss in a semi-final after watching his Hibernian side come so close to success last term.

The Easter Road men face St Johnstone at Tynecastle on Saturday as they aim to reach the League Cup final.

Stubbs' Hibs team lost out to Falkirk in last term's Scottish Cup last four clash and missed out on promotion following a 2-1 aggregate semi-final defeat at the hands of Rangers.

And he doesn't want his players to have to go through those emotions once more, adding: "It’s never nice to get to the latter stage of any cup or the play-offs and lose and what you feel at the time is something you don’t want to experience again.

"At 4.50pm or whatever the time is going to be, I don’t want to experience that again."

Stubbs remained coy over whether he would start with attacking duo Jason Cummings and Anthony Stokes in Saturday's game.