Falkirk will look to bounce back from losing 4-0 to Rangers last weekend by inflicting a first defeat of the season on Championship leaders Hearts.
The sides meet at the Falkirk Stadium on Saturday in a game that is live on BBC ALBA, kick-off 5.30pm, and Robbie Neilson’s men currently enjoy a four-point lead at the top.
Falkirk technical director Alex Smith said: “It was a sore defeat to take as we had really been looking forward to the game at Ibrox. We had beaten Cowdenbeath 6-0 in our last game and had been waiting for a fortnight to get going again but we found ourselves a goal down quite early.
“We recovered from that and got to half-time still the one goal down. The game was still in a winnable position but things just never happened. We pressed in the second half but were caught out with a counter-attacking move with 20 minutes to go and found ourselves two goals down.
“At 2-0 down we folded and lost two more goals and it looks like we got a right battering, which is disappointing. The most frustrating thing is that we never made an impact on the game at all. It is a big venue and a big game and the players never made the positive impression they could have.
“It is a different feeling going into the Hearts game, as it is more of wanting to hit back and show that we are a good side, as opposed to the excitement after the Cowdenbeath game.
“We are expecting a response to how we finished the last game at Ibrox. Hearts are a good side but we will go out there and work hard and see what happens.”
The Edinburgh men recorded a healthy win over Falkirk earlier in the season, with Smith saying: “They won 4-1 at Tynecastle in a game which again was an anti-climax for us as we had gone there on a high after winning at Hibs.
“Since then, Hearts have stayed at the top of the league and stayed unbeaten. They have done that despite their last two games being really tight which shows they have an edge.
“We have a number of incentives to win this game. We want to improve our position in the league, we want to be the first side to defeat Hearts and we also want to show the form that we did not show against Rangers last weekend.”
Falkirk’s only home defeat in the Championship so far was against Rangers in August while Hearts, who beat Raith Rovers 1-0 at Tynecastle last weekend, have won four and drawn two of their six away games.
Craig Stewart
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