Up next for The Bairns is another trip to Celtic Park as we take on Celtic this Sunday in the William Hill Championship.
Kick-off is at 3pm, Sunday 1st February.
The Bairns are back on the road this weekend, and travel to Glasgow in high spirits after an excellent result at the weekend.
After putting Hearts out of the Scottish Cup the weekend before, we turned our attention to their city rivals as we hosted Hibernian at The Falkirk Stadium last Saturday, looking to right the wrong of the 3-0 defeat at Easter Road in December.
Straight from kick-off, the boys in navy blue looked right up for it, and it took just 17 minutes for the opener as Calvin Miller managed to get a yard on his man and cross the ball across the face of goal for Barney Stewart to tap in.
Falkirk kept the tempo up, dominating the majority of the play and creating a number of chances. The effort paid off two minutes before the break through a superb team goal. Great play saw Barney touch a Dylan Tait pass dow to Calvin Miller, who managed to only just keep the ball in play, with his first touch leaving Scotland International Grant Hanley for dead. Miller raced to the edge of the box where he pulled the ball back for Barney Stewart, who tucked the ball into the back of the net for his second of the game.
Against the run of play, the visitors managed to pull a goal back through Rocky Bushiri, who powered home a header from a corner kick. In the final seven minutes of normal time, Falkirk killed the game off, putting it beyond all doubt. Barney Stewart completed his hat-trick in the 83rd minute when a pinpoint pass from Dylan Tait found Louie Marsh in the box. The on loan attacker squared the ball to the big striker who rolled into the empty net. The scoring didn’t stop there, this time it was Louie Marsh himself getting in on the act, cutting inside and hitting a shot towards goal. Grant Hanley swung a leg at it in an attempt to clear the ball, instead sending it into his ow net.
The result saw us reduce the gap to Hibs in fifth to just two points.
Our hosts were also involved in exciting action last weekend as they travelled to Tynecastle in a meeting between what was the top two at the time. Celtic had the chance to close the gap to league leaders Hearts to three points with a win. Celtic got off to a decent start, with Benjamin Nygren scoring after just seven minutes with a well hit free-kick from 20-yards out. With no immediate response, despite Kasper Schmeichel having to make some good saves, Celtic went into the break a goal to the good.
Hearts’ response came three minutes after the restart when Stewart Findlay fired a back post header past Schmeichel to level the scores.
Celtic managed to get themselves ahead again just after the hour mark. It was new signing Tomáš Čvančara at the heart of the move, driving 30 yards with the ball before sliding a pass across to Yang who made no mistake. Controversy then struck in the 77th minute when Auston Trusty brought down Kabore as he appeared to be breaking through on goal. The referee produced a yellow before heading to the VAR screen, and ultimately changing his decision to a red card.
Taking advantage of their extra man, Hearts went on to level again with three minutes left of the 90. A deep free-kick from wide left was swung in to the back post area where Oisin McEntee was there to head the ball down and back across goal. Claudio Braga was in the right place, volleying home the equaliser from 8-yards out.
Hearts remain four points clear at the top, with Rangers leapfrogging Celtic into second place after their win against Dundee.
TICKETING
Tickets for this fixture are on sale inn the club Ticket Office until 1pm Saturday 31st January. Find more information on ticketing for this fixture HERE.
