No justice for Kevin as Hearts get lucky

Ian Paul

6 Apr 1998

SOMETIMES the old ref in the sky is a nasty bit of stuff.

It was bad enough allowing a sinking Falkirk club to be beaten unjustly, but to leave the electric geriatric, who played the finest game of his career in devastation, was the act of a sadist.

The itinerant Kevin McAllister has played many a superb game in his time with various clubs, including Chelsea and Hibs, but he saved his piece de resistance for Ibrox and the Tennents Scottish Cup semi-final, when he was so good that nobody came even remotely close to challenging him as man of the match.

If ever anyone played with his heart on his sleeve, it was the 35-year-old (in football terms that is indeed geriatric) McAllister has been a Falkirk fan all his life - he has signed for them three times and we haven't stopped counting.

Kevin did everything but win the semi by himself and, if ever a man deserved that result, it was he.

Young Gary Naysmith, the Hearts full back who is a player with a great deal of promise, learned the hard way just how tough it can be when a player of McAllister's inherent skills is in this kind of form.

If Gary was giddy at the end it was hardly surprising as Kevin twisted, shimmied, dummied, and meandered his way all over the park in a display that reminded us all of a dying breed of Scottish footballers.

The only way Hearts could have stopped him was to throw a net over him.

Yet, in the end, even after he capped his performance with a goal that by itself would have won him the top-man prize, he emerged from the dressing room face flushed eyes red and spirit deadened.

It is not a fair game.

not a fair game at all.

Maybe by now Kevin will be able to appreciate just how wonderful was his contribution to an otherwise uninspiring afternoon.

After the game this Falkirk nut could only think of the disappointment suffered by him, his team-mates and his pals in the stand.

''There is no way this football club will die,'' he said defiantly, ''Those people out there won't let it.

A lot of my mates were there, the same guys I used to join when I was 13 and 14.

They still go and I know how they feel.

The Back the Bairns people also deserve credit and I hope today's performance as well as last year's shows that it doesn't deserve to die.

'' He also made the fair point that if anyone thought he was incapable of another year of top team play they saw the answer.

''There were lots of thoughts in my mind at the end, but money wasn't one of them.

I am sure the Liquidator was thinking about it, though, when we thought we had won a replay.

''Two weeks ago the lads weren't getting paid and it was a problem for some and that wasn't nice, but I think the performance today showed that money was never a factor for us.

To turn in a show like that and to get that support shows that everybody connected with the club cares a lot.

''Somebody will buy this club, no doubt at that.

There are strong and deep feelings for Falkirk.

''When you have a team and manager and support that get behind us like this, I think we have done the town proud.

'' He certainly did them a service with his own contribution which began with his first touch when he had a great run and pass to the only man on the field older than him, Albert Craig, who shot past.

Yet,when the premier side took the lead in five minutes, the stage seemed set for a convincing victory.

Thomas Flogel hit a diagonal free kick to the edge of the penalty box, where Jim Hamilton tamed it with his chest and moved forward in one movement.

His chip to the far post gave Stephane Adam a clear chance which he accepted gratefully.

However, Hearts went to sleep after that and, in fact, only sposmadically caused any problems for Falkirk until they were brought back to reality when the first division team equalised five minutes from the end.

In the intervening period, it was almost all Falkirk, who mounted siege after siege, admittedly without seriously bothering Gilles Rousset, and it seemed they had just about run out of steam when the breakthrough came.

Naturally, McAllister started the move in the centre of the field, pushing the ball through to substitute Paul McGrillen, taking the rebound, and chipping all of 20 yards over an astonished Rousset.

Everybody, neutrals especially, was delighted that the outsiders had earned the replay that would mean so much in every sense.

But the delight was short lived.

Maybe it was over-exuberance, but the Bairns went for the winner and paid with the loser, although Hearts' second goal seemed to me to come from a move begun after a foul by David Weir on David Moss that Hugh Dallas let go.

At any rate, Neil McCann needed no encouragement to catch the Falkirk defence on the counter and he laid the ball across to Adam for another easy finish.

Just before the final whistle McCann sped off again past weary and broken Falkirk warriors to add the third.

Hearts were in the final, their third major finale under manager Jim Jefferies.

All credit to them but they knew they got lucky this time.

Taken from the Herald