Falkirk lose out after an early goal and a Kingsley wonder strike sees the league leaders leave with all three points. Atrocious conditions had an impact as heavy rain and strong winds ultimately disrupted the flow of the game.
Falkirk’s penalty claim will capture most of the headlines as Wilson’s effort was blocked on the line by the arm of Harry Milne. Certainly a game changing moment in what was a disappointing night for The Bairns. The visitors started well as Lawrence Shankland saw his long range strike excellently saved on to the bar before Braga pounced on the rebound to head Hearts into an early lead. It was a hammer blow for The Bairns as they were left to chase the game with only two minutes played.
Falkirk grew into the game well though and certainly enjoyed the better of the next twenty minutes. Neither team were settling too well on the ball however, The Bairns looked the most dangerous and began knocking on the door with two fantastic crosses from the right wing in quick succession. Hearts did manage to clear their lines, but not comfortably as both resulted in Falkirk corners.
The Bairns continued to cause the Hearts defence problems down the right wing when Filip Lissah curled a lovely cross to the back post. This time the cross found Sam Hart, who was in a great position, his diving header was guided just wide though.
The game went pretty stale after Hart’s chance on the half hour mark and remained this way until Kyrell Wilson had The Bairns best chance of the evening. He managed to break away from the crowd in the middle of the pitch and expertly rounded the keeper before his effort was cleared off the line by Harry Milne. Cries for handball echoed around the ground but the claims were controversially waved away after a brief VAR check.
In the second half, Hearts showed why they are top of the league as they controlled large parts of the game after the break, limiting The Bairns to very few chances. Despite this, they still struggled to create many opportunities of their own and the game was very much there for the taking.
Scott Bain made another brilliant save to keep Falkirk in the game, getting fingertips to Braga’s diving header near the hour mark.
From here, there was a distinct lack of clear chances for either side. Both teams looked fairly dangerous on the attack but a combination of poor play and shocking weather conditions meant the final ball was rarely coming off.
Substitute Stephen Kingsley then doubled Hearts’ lead with a rocket from distance, his well struck volley left Bain with no chance and all but secured the three points for the visitors with thirteen minutes to play.
No real opportunities followed the wonder strike and Falkirk fell to defeat on a wet and windy night at The Falkirk Stadium.
Falkirk Starting XI: Scott Bain, Liam Henderson, Brad Spencer ©, Alfredo Agyeman, Henry Cartwright, Connor Allan, Kyrell Wilson, Ethan Ross, Filip Lissah, Calvin Miller, Sam Hart.
Substitutes: Nicky Hogarth, Leon McCann, Brian Graham, Finn Yeats, Dylan Tait, Ethan Williams, Ryan Edwards, Scott Arfield, Trey Samuel-Ogunsuyi.
Hearts Starting XI: Alexander Schwolow, Craig Halkett, Lawrence Shankland ©, Claudio Braga (2’), Cameron Devlin, Michael Steinwender, Harry Milne, Stuart Findlay, Tomas Magnusson, Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis.
Substitutes: Craig Gordon, Frankie Kent, Stephen Kingsley (77’), Jamie McCart, Elton Kabangu, Pierre Landry Kabore, Christian Borchgrevink, Blair Spittal, Sabah Kejorta.
Referee: Callum Scott.
Assistant Referees: Jonathan Bell and Douglas Ross.
Fourth Official: Daniel Greaves.
Attendance: 7,538.
