Brockville Bairns almost down among dead men

From the archive

1 Apr 1996

Falkirk 0, Hearts 2 WHERE to now, Falkirk.

Caretaker manager Gerry Collins and his players will not agree, but everyone else could have a fair stab at answering that question.

It's not the done thing, of course, to wave any white flags or to admit defeat before the ``mathematically impossible'' stage of the season has arrived, so it was no surprise to hear Collins defiantly say his team were not going to throw in the towel after this, their fifth defeat on the bounce.

But the boys from Brockville are looking more and more as if they're in the middle of their own production of Dead Man Walking.

Premier division wise, they're still alive and kicking, but unless something drastic happens, they're on the long, slow walk towards execution day.

A win over Hearts would have given them a real chance of earning a stay of that gory fate, but a reprieve seldom looked on the cards.

Once Scotland Under-21 defender Paul Ritchie had glanced home a fourteenth- minute header, the Bairns were simply up against it.

Once skipper Andy Gray was sent off for a tete-a-tete with counterpart Gary Locke 19 minutes later, the wheels came off the bogie.

All things considered, it turned out to be rather an eventful day for the Hearts captain, who also incurred the wrath of his manager for not doing his job properly, and then made the game safe for his side with a vicious 25-yarder which, without actually sticking two fingers in the air, was about as near as he could get to a Harvey Smith style riposte.

``The manager was giving me stick, because at 1-0 Derek Ferguson had a chance for Falkirk which hit the bar.

I had not matched his run, so he wasn't too pleased.

You've just got to do what you're told, but I think that was a good answer to him,'' explained young Locke, whose celebrations took him straight towards the Hearts bench.

``I was annoyed that Gary had lost Ferguson, but it was nice of him to come over to the dug-out after he'd scored and let me relay the message to him,'' countered Jim Jefferies.

Most of the after-match talk, however, centred on the dismissal of Gray with the two protagonists tending to see things rather differently.

``Andy Gray stamped on Allan (Johnston) and I went over to him and told him to calm down.

There was a clash of heads, but I'd rather not comment any further,'' was the gospel according to Locke.

Gray begged to differ.

``I won a free kick and was battling with the guy on the ground.

I've got up and Gary Locke was in my face.

``I was trying to push forward and he was so close to me.

There was a clash of heads, I'm not going to deny that.

But I was so up for the game and there was nothing intentional.

The referee didn't do me any justice,'' claimed the ex-England internationalist.

``The ref said he was doing me for violent conduct, but that's not how I see it.

I didn't stamp on the boy's foot.

Gary Locke is just trying to justify himself.

He says he told me to calm down, well I was calm.

``He didn't say I deliberately butted him, did he? The situation he saw was not there,'' added Gray, who also summed up the sand strewn Brockville pitch perfectly when he said ``The best players in the world would struggle to play on it.

'' Not that the Falkirk grass going to pot was the only thing which dismayed Jefferies about his former club.

``It was disappointing to experience the atmosphere about the place.

There's so much despondency.

It looks as though they've given up, which is quite sad.

``The surface doesn't help them, but instead of blaming people for doing things, they should get realistic and do something to get themselves out of it.

'' Whether Falkirk will thank him for his interest in their welfare remains to be seen.

Taken from the Herald