THE adrenaline had barely stopped coursing through the body of Ryan Bowman after bagging one of the goals of his career to haul Motherwell level at Tynecastle on Wednesday night, when the sucker punch landed.

Two last-gasp goals from Hearts rendered Bowman’s wonder-strike irrelevant and sent Motherwell crashing out of the Betfred Cup.

The fact that he had pinged in that belting volley was no consolation to the forward, who was left with nothing but the memory of the fleeting if spectacular celebrations, and regrets about what his side could have done differently from that point on.

“I’ve probably not scored many better than that, but it doesn’t stand for a lot does it?” Bowman said. “If we had won the game, fair enough, but we lost it at the end of the day.

“The momentum was with us and we had a couple of opportunities from free-kicks and corners, and a bit of luck in the final third and we could have got something more. It’s all ifs and buts.

“The boys are hugely disappointed, it was a massive opportunity to get to Hampden again and at 2-2 we maybe could have managed the game a bit better, but we had a lot of positives from the game.

“It’s good to get 90 minutes under my belt, my first start for a long time. I felt fit and good.

“The partnership with Curtis (Main) was successful last season, we’ve not managed to play much this season and I felt like we did okay together.”

As well as the regrets from the evening, Bowman was left with a lingering sense of injustice after being denied what he felt was a stonewall penalty after Curtis Main’s spot-kick had put Motherwell ahead on the night.

Main had burst clear on the left only for Zdenek Zlamal to parry his shot high in front of goal, where Bowman was waiting to apply the simplest of finishing touches. But that was before the intervention of Hearts defender Jimmy Dunne.

“I got pushed from behind and it was a blatant penalty,” said Bowman. “I was ready to head it in and I got pushed in the back.

“I’m not going to go down when I’ve got a clear opportunity but the least said about that the better.

“We felt like it was a blatant penalty. We’ve watched it back and it’s a clear push, but you can’t change the referee’s mind now.”