Brilliant Bairns are now hitting the heights for Houston
PETER HOUSTON was delighted after watching his Falkirk side turn in a dominant performance to trounce promotion rivals Dundee United.
The Bairns controlled the match from start to finish and should have perhaps won by an even more convincing margin.
A first-half header from John Baird was followed by an Aaron Muirhead penalty and a James Craigen goal in the second half to put Falkirk just three points behind United.
Houston said: ‘I’m absolutely delighted, I thought we got off to the perfect start which put them on the back foot.
‘We outworked them, outplayed them and outfought them — so all credit to our players. I don’t think Danny Rogers has had a save to make.
‘We’ve picked up more consistent form, 13 points out of 15. For us, it’s all about being in the play-offs and we’ll take it from there.’
Falkirk made a blistering start to the match and opened the scoring after just five minutes.
Myles Hippolyte drove at the United backline before playing in Lee Miller down the right. The experienced striker was afforded time to turn and cross for Baird, who met the ball with a bullet header at the front post to give the Bairns the lead.
With United really struggling to get into the match and chasing Falkirk shadows, Willo Flood was lucky not to see red for a wild challenge which left Craig Sibbald poleaxed on the ground. Referee Euan Anderson deemed the challenge worthy of only a yellow card despite chants from the home fans for a sending-off.
The Bairns started the second half in the same fashion as they did the first and doubled their advantage on 53 minutes.
Substitute Nathan Austin — on for the injured Baird — raced clear of the defence before being hauled down inside the area by United goalkeeper Luis Zwick, who was only booked for the challenge despite no covering defenders.
Muirhead stepped up for the resulting penalty and duly slotted the ball home to put his side two goals up.
Craigen made it three on the hour mark when he took advantage of calamitous defending. Mark Durnan could only scuff clear a low cross right into the path of Craigen who calmly fired home from close range.
Visiting boss Ray McKinnon said: ‘We failed miserably. It’s frustrating. It wasn’t good enough from us and unacceptable. It was comical.’
‘I felt for the fans today. That was the most inept performance we’ve had this season and I can only apologise for that.’