And, while admitting his side have to do better defensively, he commended their fighting spirit.

“When you score three goals away from home, you expect to go through,” said Alex.

“The guys showed great character to fight back, but, when it boils down to penalties, it’s purely pot luck.”

Alex will now try to lift his men for Saturday’s Dens league encounter against their cup conquerors QOS, and has vowed they will concentrate all their efforts on attaining a high finish in the table.

There is also likely to be a freshness in the Dark Blues line-up, with new signings Paul McHale, Kevin Smith and Bob Davidson all coming into contention.

“The guys are off today and when they come back in tomorrow we’ll get them lifted up.

“It’s very disappointing we are out of the cup, but we just have to dust ourselves down and get it on with it.

“We must get last night’s defeat out of our system and try to climb up the table as much as possible.”

Meanwhile, Dundee have announced that Callum Macdonald and Graham Hay have been released from their contracts. Macdonald, who has recently been on loan at Peterhead, has joined The Blue Toon on a permanent deal.

Former Dundee midfield man Neil Barrett is expected to sign for Woking today. Another ex-Dens Park man, Tom Hutchinson, is already on the Conference side’s books.