BY IAIN COLLIN – Capital City Press
Peter Houston is hopeful Falkirk can become the first team to defeat Rangers in the league – just as they ended Hearts’ unbeaten record last season.
The Bairns head for Ibrox tomorrow with the daunting task of facing a high-flying Rangers side that have won all of their eight matches so far in the Championship.
Having taken in their 4-0 win over Morton on Sunday, Houston is fully aware of the magnitude of the task that awaits his squad in Govan.
However, he takes belief from the fact his team were similarly given little hope of success back in January when they travelled to Tynecastle to face Hearts, who had racked up 17 victories in a 20-match undefeated league sequence.
Goals from John Baird, Rory Loy and Craig Sibbald dealt eventual champions Jambos their first setback in a 3-2 victory and Houston is optimistic of a repeat.
He said: “Rangers are beating most teams in the Championship fairly comfortably at Ibrox.
“But Hearts were doing the same last season when we won at Tynecastle.
“Somebody has to beat them and hopefully it will be Falkirk.”
Houston is well aware that saying and doing are two different things, but he has enough experience of going to Ibrox when Rangers were challenging to be crowned champions of Scotland to know what it will take to emerge with a positive result.
Referring to Friday’s goalless draw with Queen of the South, he added: “What we’ll need to do is play better and retain the ball better, because I don’t think we kept the ball anywhere near as well as we can do on Friday.
“We’ve got players in the team who can keep the ball, but if you go to Ibrox and you’re sloppy on the ball then you’ll get punished.
“It’s a great arena to go to and there’s a lot to look forward to.
“We’ve got players who have experienced big games now – cup finals, semi-finals, games at Ibrox, Tynecastle, Easter Road – so there shouldn’t be any fear of going to these places.
“But you have to defend well, your goalie has to have a good game and you have to play well if you want anything out of the match.”
@IainCollin
