BY IAIN COLLIN – Capital City Press
Falkirk are set to offer striker Lee Miller a contract extension to keep the Scotland cap until at least the end of the season.
The 32-year-old returned in August to the Bairns, where he started his senior career, but penned only a short-term deal which is due to expire at the turn of the year.
The player expressed his hope earlier this week that he would be able to reach a new agreement with the club to stay on for longer.
And manager Peter Houston has revealed the former Aberdeen, Dundee United and Kilmarnock marksman will get his wish.
Houston said: “We signed him until Christmas initially to see how he was but the likelihood is we’ll extend that to the end of the season.
“That’s not been done yet but, from the club’s end, I don’t see any problems with that.
“He likes it here and he’s coming to the latter stages of the career.
“He also brings a lot to the dressing room; he’s a good boy.”
Miller could miss this weekend’s home encounter with St Mirren after hobbling out of Saturday’s 5-0 hammering of Dumbarton with a calf injury.
However, Houston believes the ex-Middlesbrough, Bristol City and Carlisle United forward, who netted the first goal of his second Falkirk spell in the 1-0 win over Morton earlier this month, has shown enough in his 10 appearances to merit a new deal.
Houston added: “Lee’s been good, he brings something different to the team.
“We’ve got to make sure we aren’t tempted to play too many high balls to him, which isn’t his fault.
“But he’s a good player, he’s an experienced player and he helps get the team up the pitch.”
SFA hearing
Meanwhile, Houston will find out today if he is to be punished by the SFA for criticising referee John McKendrick in the aftermath of Falkirk’s 3-1 defeat to Rangers on October 3.
The experienced former Scotland number two was hit with a notice of complaint, accusing him of breaching rule 72 in a Falkirk TV interview conducted after a controversial James Tavernier free-kick had broken his side’s resistance late on at Ibrox.
Houston is charged with ‘criticising the decisions and performance of the match officials in such a way as to indicate bias and incompetence on their part, and which also impinged upon their character’.
He has already said he will accept any censure that comes his way but is hopeful his previous dugout record and the explanation he will give at today’s hearing will be enough to ensure he does not receive a touchline ban.
@IainCollin
