- Falkirk striker Brian Graham dismissed the thought of his team playing a weakened side against Rangers, to rest players for the Scottish Cup final
- The concept has been shattered after Falkirk failed to get past rivals Dunfermline on Saturday.
- Next up for the Bairns is a visit to Celtic on Saturday, in the first of their post-split fixtures.
Falkirk striker Brian Graham dismissed speculation that Falkirk could play a weakened team in the final game of the SPFL Premiership season, but the whole dynamic has changed for his club.
Ahead of the weekend, the expectation was that the Bairns would triumph over Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup semi-final, to set up their own season finale.
That would have meant hosting Rangers on Matchday 38, ahead of the showpiece game at Hampden – both of those events will be happening, but the latter will not involve Falkirk.
Falkirk falter under pressure and expectation
Falkirk lost the semi-final to rivals Dunfermline on Saturday, with Neil Lennon’s team getting the job done on penalties after the teams played out a 0-0 stalemate.
The expectation was that Falkirk would prove strong for their Championship opponent, but they failed to deliver under the pressure.
Did they suffer from Rangers’ excellent 6-3 comeback victory last week? Probably not, but they would have preferred going into the Hampden clash on the back of a win.
Not getting involved in any that nonsense
In recent days, there has been talk of Falkirk potentially fielding a depleted team against Rangers on the last day of the league, but Graham ruled that out.
“I wouldn’t say that. You don’t know our manager, the 38-year-old told Clyde One Superscoreboard.
“Our manager goes into every game to win, so I wouldn’t come up with these theories so early on – just let us try and get to the final first, and we will take it as it comes.
“Sometimes you want to play for an hour and then play the following week – it’s not as if it’s a midweek game. I don’t think it will come down to it.
“I think for players, the confidence and the momentum, you want to be playing. When you are playing well, you don’t want to have a week out to rest for the game the following week.
“You want to continue playing.
He continued, “It might not come down to the last game of the season, it might be done by then, but it doesn’t affect us – we are not going to win the title.”
“We are going into these last five games, as we have done every single game this season – to try and win.
“Have we won them all? No we haven’t, but we have went in with that mindset and that game plan to try and win. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. That will be the case with these last five games.
“There are going to be fans out there who have these conspiracy theories. We as a club are not getting involved in any of that nonsense.”
What does the Scottish Cup loss mean for Falkirk?
The striker was introduced to the Dunfermline tie during extra-time but was helpless to stop the slip into penalties and ultimately, the painful loss to the Pars.
Now, there will be no more talk of weakened teams.
With that cup upset, the whole dynamic has changed for John McGlynn’s team.
Instead of fine-tuning for a shot at glory, they are now playing out the campaign across the last five fixtures.
They will be aiming to finish as high up the table as possible, but finishing beyond fifth would be a tall order.
After back-to-back disappointments against Rangers and now Dunfermline, the Bairns will be looking to bounce back and restore some pride when they take on Celtic on Saturday evening.
