Young Bairns teach Honest Men a lesson
Ray Mckinnon is more than half-way to signing a new Falkirk team and they’re already reaping the benefit. The Bairns moved off the bottom of the Championship with a surprise win at high-flying Ayr United. Mckinnon admitted he wasn’t sure that throwing in a raft of newcomers would work, but he was delighted with the way they performed.
He said: “We took a gamble. We had five players coming in to the team who were really lacking in match fitness.
“None of them have really played, apart from Ian Mcshane in parts.
“You could tell in the second half the fitness levels dropped considerably.
“But we’re delighted with that result as we had to do something different to what we’d been doing earlier in the season. “We were throwing some young kids in against the team in second place and it paid off. Hopefully they can grow in confidence and we’ll look to add a few more bodies this week.
“If we can sign three or four real quality players in the next week or two, then hopefully we can put on a real push over the rest of the season.
“I’m delighted to be off the bottom of the table as it’s been a tough few months.”
The Bairns started with fresh faces Paul Dixon, Ross Maclean, Ian Mcshane, Mark Waddington and Ciaran Mckenna.
Shane Lavery was listed as a substitute, while former Partick Thistle captain Abdul Osman had to watch from the stand as he waits for international clearance from Greece.
The new players made it difficult for Ayr to get into their stride and a burst of attacking moves paid off with a goal early in the second half.
Ross Doohan spilled a shot from Maclean and Zak Rudden was alert enough to stab home the loose ball.
It was a goal the home keeper won’t want to see again. He really should have dealt with the shot quite comfortably.
Ayr United’s frustrated fans will fear this is a vision of life without Lawrence Shankland.
The 28-goal striker is currently sidelined with an Achilles’ injury, but is attracting attention from clubs all over the country.
Although he’d undoubtedly be a huge miss, the service provided by his teammates wouldn’t have suited him yesterday.
The Honest Men only showed real urgency once they were behind.
Falkirk decided to defend the lead and breaking down a deep-lying, packed defence is never easy.
Ayr had a gilt-edged chance to equalise in the 89th minute but captain Steven Bell somehow managed to miss with the goal at his mercy.
A subsequent stramash ended with Falkirk clearing their lines, much to the relief of the manager.
Ayr boss Ian Mccall was clearly upset with the showing of his men.
Assistant manager Neil Scally was sent out to talk about their failure to capitalise on Ross County’s defeat at Morton on Friday night.
He said: “It was disappointing to lose our unbeaten home record in that fashion.
“Falkirk set up to frustrate us and worked hard as a unit. “They’ve brought in a few new faces which seemed to give them a lift but they didn’t really trouble us in our half and we had a few opportunities. “Lawrence Shankland being out wasn’t the reason we lost. “We’ve been a very good team this season, with a lot of clean sheets – and they weren’t down to Lawrence.
“He’s been fantastic for us but he’ll have recovered from his injury in time for next weekend’s game at Inverness.
“We can only plan for him to still be with us at the end of the window.”