Jolt for Jefferies after joy of cup victory

15 Feb 1993

FOOTBALL can work in mysterious ways.

Just ask Jim Jefferies.

At five o'clock on Saturday, February 6, the Falkirk manager could hardly think of fitting superlatives to describe his team's performance against Celtic in the Scottish Cup.

Just seven days on at Tynecastle, he was grasping at words such as "losers," "pathetic," and "shocking."

Falkirk have been rightly praised for their enterprising approach to matches this season.

Their goal tally is respectable (indeed, only Rangers, Aberdeen, and Celtic have scored more in the premier division), but the number of goals they have lost is, to use Jefferies' terms, pathetic and shocking.

They have lost 40 goals in just 16 league outings away from Brockville, which is the worst record in British football and is why they are just a point off bottom place.

Jefferies' concern is that when his team lose a goal, they seem to lose heart.

"In our position, you have to show determination," he said afterwards.

"Airdrie battle for each other and that is what sometimes gets you a result.

We go to Ibrox and don't compete and lose 5-0; Airdrie go and compete and draw 2-2."

"It's not good enough.

The only player to show an example today was Kevin McAllister, who had a terrific match."

Jefferies has more than hinted that if the experienced members of his squad do not produce the goods, then he will bring in some youngsters.

He has told his players in no uncertain terms that there will be changes.

Perhaps the Falkirk manager was also influenced by the immediate reward Joe Jordan reaped from introducing a 17-year-old striker on Saturday, Kevin Thomas.

Thomas's promotion had been accelerated by an injury to Ian Baird.

Even then, the former Scottish schoolboys' internationalist was detained on the substitute's bench for fully 72 minutes before Jordan felt the time was right to throw him into the action.

Within four minutes, he was nudging his team-mate, John Robertson, out of the way in front of goal (no mean feat) to get on the end of a Derek Ferguson cross.

He calmly killed the ball with his chest and then swept the ball past keeper Tony Parks.

That gave Hearts a 2-0 lead -- Tosh McKinlay had opened the scoring shortly after half-time -- and shortly afterwards an own goal from substitute Alex Taylor extended Hearts' lead before Richard Cadette scored a consolation goal for Falkirk.

But what of Thomas? According to Jim Ferguson, the head of PE at Thomas's old school, Queensferry High, and a former player himself with Airdrie, Falkirk, and Alloa, football has always been in the youngster's blood.

'The only other boy I can remember at our school who had the same desire to succeed at sport was Stephen Hendry, who was always telling the teachers he was going to be world snooker champion.

No-one took him seriously."

Taken from the Herald