It wasn’t always pretty, and Falkirk weren’t the pushovers that some suspected they might be, but the Bairns lacked the quality necessary to punish Caley’s sloppiness. Then again, no one can score against Caley, can they? A club record of 7 clean sheets in a row and a place in the semi-finals of the challenge cup, job done.

On a wet Saturday evening, the Caley Jags ensured that the match-going supporters were glad they bothered turning up, rather than watching it in front of a lovely warm fire on BBC ALBA.

Lovely Saturday evening entertainment for the 1078 that braved the cold.

It was Falkirk who had lion’s share of the chances in the first half and will be frustrated that they didn’t capitalise on some sluggish Caley defending. Had we not cursed Myles Hippolyte by identifying him as a possible danger-man in the preview, he might not have had such a wasteful evening in front of goal. Most notably blazing over when Mark Ridgers fumbled a cross. Falkirk looked the more likely team to find the breakthrough, with Harris causing Scottish Championship player of the month for October, Carl Tremarco problems with his direct runs. Caley could have easily just blown the clean sheet record at the final hurdle.

Caley looked short of ideas creatively, it looked at times that the best option was Tremarco’s darting runs but every attempt to find him with a cross field pass ended with the ball sadly dribbling out for a goal kick. Sloppy in possession, it seemed as if we were relying on an individual moment of magic from someone. Vigurs nearly provided that with some smart footwork and a fierce strike which was well kept out by Robbie Thomson.

It’s not often you are thrilled to see one of your in-form players writhing in agony, but as the referee halted a dangerous looking counter attack for Falkirk because Carl Tremarco had suffered a head injury, it was hard not to count your blessings.

Falkirk went in at half time feeling that they should be ahead.

Half time was spent anxiously waiting to see if Caley could keep it tight for the first 5 minutes of the second half and break the ‘minutes since last conceded’ record.

It was a nerve-wracking halftime.

One of the highlights of the evening occurred at halftime as a fan stood up and bellowed “WAKE UP CALEY!” at disinterested looking substitutes who were tepidly warming up during the interval.

As the clock struck 49:00, history was made. Caley had done it. Fantastic achievement. But it’s not like they could celebrate during the game like they did for Didier Drogba’s Chelsea farewell and stop the match and have a little party. There was a job to do.

The substitutes obviously passed the irate Caley fan’s message on to the first 11 as they started the second half with much crisper ball retention. It wasn’t long until Caley started turning the key and created a couple of chances, most notably Alex Cooper with a dipping header that had to be smartly kept out by Thomson. A ‘Cooper Looper’, you could say.

GOAL! Bell! It was coming. Sustained pressure from the Caley jags, Falkirk couldn’t get out of their own half. David Raven with an early cross, the Falkirk defender heads it off John Baird and the ball falls kindly to Bell who thunders it into the roof of the net. Based on the start we made to second half, it was utterly deserved.

However we switched off straight after scoring and Falkirk would’ve equalised had it not been for a heroic block by Brad Mckay on Austin.

Austin was obviously frustrated with this miss and minutes later he had a little nibble on Vigurs. It looked like he was seriously injured. He probably was, but it seems the man has bionic legs. He played on.

It was clear that Caley’s plan was to sit back and allow Falkirk to try to get through the wall and profit on the counter attack.

Bell had numerous chances to put the game to bed. A simple pass to Baird who was through on goal was wasted. Substitute Oakley was involved in a big meaty collision with the onrushing Robbie Thomson and the ball fell to Bell who was 35 yards out with an open goal ahead of him but he couldn’t control it and the chance fizzled out.

Doran came on after 2 years of injury hell and looked surprisingly sharp, did a great job of winding up the Falkirk fans with his time wasting. However his Twitter bio is a farce, don’t care how long he’s been out of football.

It hasn’t been called that since 2013, Aaron. We got relegated, Aaron.

It was a bit of a nervous finish, with Falkirk winning a free kick in dying moments, but thankfully it sailed over harmlessly.

Falkirk lost their heads. I’m afraid Paul Hartley went from looking like Andrea Pirlo to Rino Gattuso over the course of the 90 minutes. Polworth went down and Falkirk player smacked the ball at him, which is always funny. Always.

Falkirk didn’t manage to convert their late possession into clear cut chances and the full time whistle blew, 1-0 Caley!

Thoughts

It took us a while to get going but we found our groove eventually and were good value for the win. A by-product of being in good form is occasionally you can stink the place out and STILL pick up wins. And that’s what happened.

The big take away from the game is the new clean sheet record. 7 games on the run (friendlies don’t count) is a fantastic achievement. Yes, the previous record was when were in the top flight and the standard was a lot higher, but this has been more enjoyable as it has to come from nowhere. It wasn’t long ago that we got beat 5-1 by Dunfermline. This is a miracle.

The win takes us through to the semi-finals of the challenge cup where we will face either TNS, Dumbarton or Crusaders. What a strange competition this is. The draw will take place this Tuesday on the IRN BRU Facebook page.

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