BY IAIN COLLIN – Capital City Press
Luke Leahy is hopeful clear-the-air talks will ensure Falkirk do not suffer a repeat of their Highland humiliation when they face Rangers this afternoon.
The Bairns extended their unbeaten league run to seven matches with last Friday’s goalless draw at home to Queen of the South.
Leahy admits that clean sheet was vitally important as it came just three days after they had been hammered 7-0 by Ross County in the League Cup.
The 22-year-old is fully aware Peter Houston’s men face another huge test of their character at Ibrox today as they bid to try and halt Rangers’ 100 per cent Championship record.
But the full-back, who is a graduate of the Gordon Strachan Football Foundation set up by the Scotland manager, believes he and his team-mates are ready for action after having words.
He said: “I’m sure every dressing room has had it, and we’ve had it before, where there were a few words said and everyone got out what they wanted to say.
“And that was it, it was put to bed after that.
“For us to concede seven goals on the Tuesday and to have a game against Queen of the South on the Friday, the clean sheet was massive for us.
“Probably people will think 0-0 was a boring game and it was a bad performance.
“But after Tuesday we just wanted that clean sheet and to go forward now and hopefully get another one on Saturday.
“It’s going to be difficult but these games are going to come up and we’ve got to try our best.
“But there’s no harder place this season to go to try and keep that unbeaten league run going.”
Falkirk lost three times to Rangers last season, but finished the campaign with two draws, including April’s 2-2 scoreline at Ibrox.
Leahy knows there have been massive changes to today’s opponents since then but he is still hopeful that lightning could strike twice in the same place.
He added: “Rangers have been very impressive. I watched their win against Morton and they were excellent.
“They’ll open teams up in attack, so we’ve got to stay tight defensively and keep well drilled, and hopefully we get a good performance from everyone.
“I’m sure we’ll try and pass the ball as well as we can but it will be very difficult to keep the ball because they like to dominate matches.
“But we’ve noticed that they might not be as good defending against the counter-attack, so hopefully we can get some joy there.
“It’s a completely different team we’re playing against but the two goals we scored last season at Ibrox came from two counter-attacks.
“So, hopefully there will be more of the same on Saturday.”
@IainCollin
