Saints put Falkirk in a spot of bother
FALKIRK paid a heavy penalty against St Johnstone as whistler Bobby Madden declared war on corner-kick combat.
Madden awarded Saints three first-half spot-kicks as the Premiership side dumped their Championship opponents 3-0 to go top of Betfred Cup Group B.
The Bairns’ Paul Watson and Luke Leahy were penalised separately for wrestling with St Johnstone’s Joe Shaughnessy and Graham Cummins in the box, while Tom Taiwo was done for scything down Danny Swanson.
Unsurprisingly, Bairns boss Peter Houston insisted his team were victims of an injustice at McDiarmid Park. But delighted Saints gaffer Tommy Wright last night claimed his side should have had another spot kick.
Wright said: “I thought we should have had four penalties as there was another one on Graham Cummins.
“The Danny Swanson one is pen, the Joe Shaughnessy one is pen and you can see why he has given the third one. The referee clearly saw Cummins’ shirt being pulled.
“You could argue about the consistency of it, but the ref saw it. I can’t change the rules.
“But I don’t want the penalties to overshadow the performance because I thought we were very good. We limited Falkirk to very few chances and we had a lot of possession, shots and corner kicks.”
Houston’s team looked uncomfortable from the start against a typically well-organised Saints.
With the diminutive John Baird asked to plough a lone furrow up front, they struggled to make the ball stick beyond the St Johnstone midfield.
Wright’s men had no such issues – and their first spot-kick came early.
Tom Taiwo was the culprit for the Bairns, chopping down Danny Swanson after the Saints wide man burst into the box.
Liam Craig stepped up to the spot only to see his effort saved by Danny Rogers – but Saints weren’t done.
Swanson stepped up to the mark nine minutes later after Falkirk defender Watson wrestled Shaughnessy to the ground and fired to Rogers’ right.
Then the wide man repeated the trick on 36 minutes after Leahy was adjudged to have pulled the shirt of Saints striker Cummins.
Having denied Falkirk a penalty of their own – and St Johnstone a fourth – before halftime, whistler Madden was subjected to a torrent of abuse by Bairns fans as he headed up the tunnel at half-time.
With the bulk of the damage done, Shaughnessy capped off an impressive Saints performance by bundling home from close range with just over 20 minutes remaining.
The strength of St Johnstone’s performance was something Falkirk boss Houston was happy to acknowledge. But he insisted his side were hard done by on the penalty front.
“The first one is a definite penalty, I’ve no complaints,” said Houston.
“The second one, Shaughnessy has pushed Watson with two hands, then Watson’s finger has got stuck in his shorts! The third one is a joke. It’s a soft, poor decision.
“Then Steven Anderson has committed a foul in St Johnstone’s box by coming over the top of Bairdy. I’m looking for consistency – and I didn’t think there was any today.”