McGowan will now have a chance to win his first silverware for Hearts when they take on city rivals Hibernian in the final.

In the FA Cup semi-final, Brad Jones and Tim Cahill both put in full shifts as Liverpool defeated Everton 2-1.

The Toffees' goal came on 24 minutes, when Jamie Carragher's clearance bounced off Cahill and landed near the feet of Nikica Jelavic, who fired the ball past the Australian goalkeeper.

From then on, Jones was rarely tested and he told ESPN after the match, “The boys at the back are fantastic players and I think they dealt with it well. I didn’t have a lot to do.”

He went on to concede that he his unlikely to play in the final, “In the end, Pepe is the main man. We don’t dispute that, he’s been top drawer for the last five or six years so I’m hoping he’ll be proud of it.”

In the Premier League, Chris Herd’s head injury kept him out of the Aston Villa team that went down 4-0 to Manchester United.

The news was better in the npower Championship, where Reading defeated Southampton 3-1, thanks in no small part to another virtuoso performance from Adam Federici.

The Saints dominated the opening stages of the match and created numerous opportunities, but were repeatedly denied by Federici.

He was not beaten until the second-half, when a Rickie Lambert strike deflected off Kaspars Gorkks into the back of the net.

Scott McDonald played a full match as Middlesbrough revived their promotion hopes with a 1-0 win against Derby County.

The victory ended an eight game winless streak for Boro and keeps them just two points outside of the top six.

Before the game, Tony Mowbray revealed that Rhys Williams will not play again this season unless Middlesbrough make the play-offs.

Williams injured his ankle last month and was expected to return in time for the Championship run-in. However, Mowbray told the Evening Gazette “I think in my mind Rhys won’t play this season unless the season is extended”

“Playing in the play-offs is probably in his mind at the moment but we would only assess that if and when we have to make that decision.”

Shane Lowry played a full match and picked up a yellow card in Millwall’s 2-1 victory over Leicester City.

Richard Garcia started and played 75 minutes in Hull’s 1-1 draw with Watford.

In League One, Dean Bouzanis played a full game as Oldham drew 2-2 with Wycombe Wanderers.

The inexperience of the young keeper was exposed when he was caught in two minds about whether to stay back or run out for a Wycombe through-ball.

Stuart Beavon capitalised on the indecision to poke the ball into the Oldham goal.

Later in the game, Bouzanis went some way towards atoning for the error by producing a quality save to deny Grant Basey’s low free kick.

Bailey Wright made his eighth consecutive start for Preston North End in the 1-0 defeat of Huddersfield Town.

In the German Bundesliga, Nikita Rukavystya played a full match and made an assist as Hertha Berlin overcame a two goal deficit to draw 3-3 with Bayer Leverkusen.

Midway through the second half, Rukavytsya whipped in a low cross that was tapped home by Tunay Torun.

Matthew Leckie was not in the Borussia Monchengladbach team that trounced Koln 3-0.

In the Austrian Bundesliga, James Holland remained on the bench for the duration of Austria Wien’s 0-0 draw with Rapid Wien.

In the Eredivisie, Tommy Oar was an 89 minute substitute as Utrecht came from behind to defeat VVV Venlo 4-2. Adam Sarota was tasked with warming the bench for the full 90 minutes.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, Jason Davidson played a full game as Heracles drew 1-1 with RKC Waalwijk, while a muscular problem kept Brett Holman out of the AZ squad that suffered a 3-2 defeat to PSV.

In the Chinese Super League, Milan Susak put in a full shift for Tianjin Teda in the 1-0 victory over Shanghai Shenhua. Joel Griffiths was relegated to the bench by new Shanghai manager Nicolas Anelka.

Naturalised Aussie Reinaldo scored in Beijing Guoan’s 2-1 defeat of Shandong Luneng.

The former Brisbane Roar striker took advantage of some calamitous defending to slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

Mile Sterjovski put in a full shift as Dalian Aerbin climbed off the bottom of the CSL table with a 1-0 win at home to Henan Jianye.

Dino Djulbic played all of Guizhou Renhe’s goalless draw with Changchun Yatai.

Guangzhou R&F secured their spot at the summit of the table thanks to a goal from Rostyn Griffith in the 1-0 win against Dalian Shide.

In the Chinese second division, Brendon Santalab started again but couldn’t help Chongqing Lifan avoid a 1-0 loss to Wuhan Zall.

Lifan have failed to win a match this season and it came as no surprise when Lawrie McKinna handed in his resignation following the latest defeat.

McKinna gave his version of events on Twitter, “We got beat 1 nil and then got called into my bosses room were we discussed the game which we played very well in but lost.

“We disagreed on a few things and I decided it was better to walk away from the club.”

The fortunes of the Korean-based Aussies have gone from bad to worse, with a glut of injuries preventing all but two players from getting any game time.

Eddy Bosnar started and played 82 minutes as Suwon Bluewings scored a late winner to defeat Daegu 1-0 and remain at the top of the K-League table.

Fit-again Robbie Cornthwaite returned to the starting line up as Chunnam conceded a late goal to draw 2-2 against Gwangju.

In the J-League, Jade North played another 90 minutes for Consadole Sapporo, but was unable to prevent a 3-1 defeat to Nagoya Grampus. Josh Kennedy missed the match with a lower back injury.

Matthew Spiranovic was absent from the Urawa Red Diamonds side that defeated Vissel Kobe 2-0.

Alex Brosque put in a full shift as Shimizu S-Pulse won 3-2 against Jubilo Iwata.

In the J2-League, Mark Milligan was back in the starting line up as JEF United and Fagiano Okayama drew 0-0.

In Uzbekistan, David Carney started and played 54 minutes as Bunyodkor lost 2-1 away to Navbahor.

In the UAE Pro League, Mark Bresciano came on as a second-half substitute in Al Nasr’s 2-2 draw with Bani Yas, while Lucas Neill was not in the squad for Al Jazira’s 2-0 win against Al Shabab.