THE FA Cup is traditionally a breeding ground for heroes and, despite Saturday's 1-0 defeat, the turf of the Millennium Stadium provided fertile territory for one Saints youngster.

Leaving aside for a moment the controversy over whether Fabrice Fernandes should have started, there could be absolute no dispute about the excellence of replacement Chris Baird's display.

The day largely belonged to the wonderful fans off the pitch, but on it the shining star for Saints was unquestionably the young Northern Irish prospect.

Remember this was the 21-year-old's second-ever start for the first team. And this was the FA Cup Final - Saints' biggest game for 27 years and he would be marking last season's footballer of the year Robert Pires.

Yet there was something of team-mate Wayne Bridge about him in the confident and unassuming way he took a momentous new test completely in his stride.

Baird might look like the kind of friendly young man that might serve you over the deli in Tesco, but when he gets on a football pitch he clearly has a special talent - and temperament.

Remarkably he was able to treat a cup final in front of more than 73,000 people like a reserve team match against Wimbledon at Staplewood.

He made telling tackles, passes, interceptions and even a goal-line clearance as Arsenal looked more dangerous down the opposite flank.

Yet if Baird fully justified Strachan's faith in him, it was still a massive decision not to find a place for the enigmatic figure of Fernandes somewhere in the starting line-up. Before Saturday, this season he had started 35 out of 38 league games and five out of six in the cup.

Brilliant up until January, there has, however, been a dip in his form since.

And when Gordon Strachan took him off just 27 minutes into the 6-1 defeat against Arsenal at Highbury 12 days ago, the message was clear when he said: "I will pick the team for the cup final who want to close down to give us a chance. If you don't do that you've got no chance." Basically, Strachan decided Saints' only hope against such a skilled team was to knock them out of their stride by out-working them.

The game-plan was successful in that Arsenal, certainly one of the best attacking teams in Europe, were restricted to just the solitary Pires goal.

Unfortunately, while there was little to choose between the teams on the balance of play, there was on the quality of play, particularly in the final third, as Saints struggled to carve out clear chances.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and, although Strachan should surely have bought the Frenchman on earlier than the 86th minute, it is hard to seriously argue that playing Fernandes from the off would have transformed their chances.

The bottom line was that they lost because Arsenal had better players.

Their comparative financial muscle means Arsene Wenger has accumulated a squad of huge class and power.

Saints are highly effective opposition for anyone, but Arsenal have an edge of the Rolls Royce about them.

While Saints huffed, puffed and tried to muscle their way through the game, the likes of Pires, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp seem to purr with efficiency as they pass and move.

With this trio of players, the exceptional has become the norm.

And from the first minute when Henry almost scored, the Gunners were light on their feet going forward, moving as if ready to dance away with the FA Cup.

Saints were always in the game, and perhaps with a little bit of luck, it was possible to have forced extra-time and victory. Yet they were swimming against a pretty fearsome tide and it would be churlish to suggest anyone could have done much more to turn this season's wonderful FA Cup campaign into eventual victory.

The experience will certainly have done the players the world of good and Gordon Strachan has built a platform from which to repeat the feat in any of the three cup competitions they will enter during the next campaign.

If passion, honesty and superb fans, were enough to ensure victory, Chris Marsden would be lifting trophies for Saints every year.

Yet the lesson was clear - to compete with the very best, they need just a little more quality in their squad.

Still, in Chris Baird, Saints certainly unearthed one such player on Saturday.