Houston hails his heroes after a never-say-die effort does trick

McHugh strikes at the death to put Falkirk into play-off final

it. It was a special goal from Luke Leahy — he showed great composure when he struck the ball to get us back into it. ‘When it came to the 92nd minute, I said before the game that we’d go for it. We’d both our centre-halves in their penalty area for what was probably the last kick of the ball. ‘Lee Miller won the first header and Bob McHugh — with five goals out of six — scores the winner. ‘It’s the best time to score as there’s no comeback and no chance of Hibs getting anything from the game. ‘It was a tough, tough match. Admittedly they’ve got better quality than us but not as much character and desire. We’ve got that in abundance and, not for the first time this season, we’ve shown that willingness to go that extra yard. ‘That’s got us the result tonight. We could have sat on it and taken extra time but we wanted to go for it right to the end. We did it away at St Mirren, against Rangers. They never know when they are beaten this team.’ Houston lavished praise on McHugh, picked up on a free transfer after he was released by Motherwell last summer, saying: ‘It was great to still have him on the pitch to score. ‘Bob has been chapping my door these last few weeks to get in the team. ‘It wasn’t me who took him out of it, it was injuries. ‘I brought him here to play and the one thing I knew was he knows how to score goals. He goes in where it hurts. ‘There’s a knack to that — it’s a gift. He’s in there again, waiting for his chance. ‘We wanted him to bring us some pace and get them turning. He’s not played 90 minutes for a while, so it was great to have him still there to get the winner.’ Falkirk entertain Kilmarnock on Thursday before the return at Rugby Park next Sunday. ‘Kilmarnock will be a tough game,’ added Houston, ‘even though they have not had their best season. ‘We’ve watched them these last three weeks and seen their system. We saw them at Hamilton and how they are capable of big results. ‘They have guys who can score goals, like Kris Boyd, who’s a finisher. We’ll need to be at our best to go up.’

PETER HOUSTON last night lauded his Falkirk side for going to the wire as they broke Hibs’ hearts in the final moment of the play-off semi-final.

The Bairns had led through Blair Alston’s early goal before James Keatings’ quickfire double turned the tie in Hibs’ favour.

But Luke Leahy’s volley with 11 minutes remaining squared the aggregate score at 4-4 before Bob McHugh struck in the final minute of injury time to send Falkirk through to the final with Kilmarnock.