Match reports for 8/3/08

Inveross 1
Falkirk GHG 5

Falkirk travelled to Inverness hoping to make amends for points dropped in the corresponding home fixture earlier in the season, and in wet and windy conditions, returned with all 3 points courtesy of a strong second half performance. From the first whistle Falkirk dominated, but struggled to get any clear efforts on goal. Craig Strachan shot narrowly wide after good build up through midfield, but the rest of Falkirk's attacking play seemed to fail at the final pass. Inverness took the lead against the run of play, capitalising on a poor pass out of defence, and the ball taking the slightest touch inside the box to sneak past Thomson. The visitors managed to get level before half time, Chris Anderson reacting quickly at a penalty corner to force the ball home from a yard. Falkirk raised their game a couple of gears at the start of the second half, and 2 goals in the opening 5 minutes sealed the points. Stafford Dickson intercepted a ball out from the Inveross defence, and he found Strachan at the top of the box, who opened up the defence with a first time pass to the back post for Michael Watson to shoot home from close range. Falkirk's third goal came from the penalty spot, Douglas Nicol's surge into the box was brought to an abrupt halt with a stick round his knees, and Dickson converted. Falkirk continued to press, with Richard Grey and Ross Drummond pushing forward from the full back berths at every opportunity, and they extended their lead from another penalty corner, Dickson getting his second of the day with a flick into the top left corner that gave the keeper no chance. Watson missed a glorious chance to add to his tally when he deflected wide from Strachan's pinpoint cross, whilst at the other end, the Falkirk defence denied Inveross any further consolation with another solid performance. The final goal of the day came from a quick break after an Inveross attack, Chris Anderson made ground down the right wing and his long diagonal was met at the back post by Watson who deflected high into the net.

Falkirk GHG III 0
Alloa 4

In the most appalling weather conditions of the season, the 3rd XI braved the elements at Linlithgow to play Alloa, a team who had come down from division one the previous season. The Falkirk side had won their last 5 games, but were without several crucial players including Ross Dickson, Dougie Smith and Danny Gibney. Falkirk created the first chance of the match, when some lovely passing found Ewan Jeffrey free at the top of the D but he narrowly pulled his shot wide. That was as good as it got for the home side, as Alloa seemed to pick up a gear and started to control the game with possession in the key areas of the pitch. It was no surprise when Alloa opened the scoring mid-way through the half, before making it 2-0 shortly before half-time. Only several excellent stops by Craig Malcolm in goal prevented the score-line from being even more one sided. At half-time Falkirk left the pitch knowing they had severely under-performed compared to their recent displays. The second half was much better for Falkirk and they started to test the Alloa goalkeeper. Jonny Anderson came close when his shot was well saved before young Jeffrey was also thwarted by the visitors goalkeeper. Falkirk’s passing improved substantially, with the home side trying to play short sensible passes and retain possession. Alloa however were to score a crucial decisive 3rd goal which effectively killed off this game as a contest. Just as the umpire was about to blow for full-time Alloa again broke quickly and scored a 4th goal. Falkirk’s performance in the first half was simply not good enough and despite a vast improvement in the second half, Alloa were simply the better side and they deserved to win.

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