Match Report
Sunday, 26th October, 2008
by Brian Welsh
Kilmarnock 1-2 Falkirk
RAGING Killie boss Jim Jefferies insists whistle-happy ref Mike McCurry blew it big time at Rugby Park. Jeff blasted McCurry for being too quick with his whistle at the controversial penalty that allowed Falkirk to go 2-0 up.
And then with his side chasing the game after reducing the deficit, the Killie boss claimed he felt cheated when the ref blew early for full-time with the Bairns down to 10 men.
Jefferies said: "We noticed when we played Celtic that McCurry is quick to jump in and make decisions and I thought he did that today for what was a dubious penalty.
"I will need to watch it on the video before we see if he was right or not but our players are adamant there was no contact.
"But what we do feel really cheated about is three minutes of injury time when I thought there was easily five or six."
Given the blustery conditions it was appropriate that Falkirk made a whirlwind start and the away side had the ball in the net just 37 seconds after kicking off.
Kevin McBride found Graham Barrett in the right channel and the striker's low drive was netted by Steve Lovell only for the stand-side linesman to correctly raise his flag.
Killie responded well and came close 10 minutes later when Danny Invincibile's deep cross was met by the leaping Conor Sammon whose powerful header was gathered by Scott Flinders at the second attempt.
The swirling wind and rain played their part when Falkirk took the lead just before the half hour.
Neil McCann's ball in would have been caught by Alan Combe on any other day but he chose to punch and failed to get a good connection. The ball fell to Jackie McNamara who headed back towards the six yard box for Lovell to volley in from close range.
Killie tried to conjure up an immediate response and Jamie Hamill's pile driver was inches off target soon after.
The home side came close again on the stroke of half-time with Flinders doing well to tip over a David Fernandez header from Craig Bryson's cross.
Bryson cursed his luck two minutes after the restart when he raced on to meet Invincibile's cross only to watch Flinders brilliantly touch his half volley on to the post.
That was to prove critical as Falkirk doubled their lead in 65 minutes. Barrett and Hamill contested the ball in the Killie box and when the Falkirk striker hit the deck McCurry quickly pointed to the spot.
It looked as if Barrett had lost his footing on the wet surface and the Killie players and fans vented their fury with furious keeper Combe earning himself a booking.
When it all calmed down Killie midfielder Scott Arfield sent Combe the wrong way.
There was more controversy to follow when Lovell received a straight red for a petulant shove on Hamill which prompted a 20-man handbags session that saw Barrett booked.
Donovan Simmonds handed Killie a late glimmer of hope when he glanced in fellow sub Willie Gibson's cross two minutes into injury time but Falkirk saw out the remaining 60 seconds to leapfrog Hamilton at the bottom of the table.
REF WATCH: MIKE McCURRY lost control of the match after his controversial penalty call but he was right to dismiss Stevie Lovell for his stupid shove. Rating: 4/10.