Hughes comes out fighting

Falkirk 0

Hearts 0

THE supporters who wrote to Falkirk's board demanding the dismissal of John Hughes would be well advised to keep their heads down these next few days. After his team had secured a scoreless draw with Hearts yesterday, the manager of the SPL's bottom club made it clear he was gunning for them. "We can get out of this, and I hope we do, because there are one or two people I am going to hunt down," he said.

Hughes is furious about a letter sent by the Bairns Trust to the club's chairman, Campbell Christie, which said that the manager should be sacked. In it, they suggested that Steven Pressley, or even Alex Totten, be installed so that the club's immediate future was safeguarded. They also expressed doubt that the incumbent was fit to make decisions about the future of the club's younger players.

"It was absolutely diabolical," he said. "The timing was abysmal, not helpful to my team at all today. I know the people responsible for it. They are trying to hide behind the Bairns Trust, which only has 114 supporters. I don't think they have the backing they think they have. The true Falkirk fans realise that they are in a dogfight and they are standing shoulder to shoulder."

That, though, was not the end of the matter for Hughes, who is also aggrieved that his board of directors have not done more in response. "The club have done a press release saying they are right behind me, but I don't think that's enough. Thanks very much, but I would like the board to do a further investigation into it. I know who the people responsible are, and I am looking for my club to stand up real strong and deal with certain individuals. I wouldn't like to think it will be swept under the carpet."

It was fighting talk from a manager whose team had been just as combative on the pitch. After the previous week's debacle at Rugby Park, he had demanded that his team be more resilient, and although they might have been two or three down at the interval, they fought manfully for their point in the second half. With scarcely a shot on goal to trouble the Hearts goalkeeper, Marian Kello, it was far from pretty, but there were none of the protests promised by those lobbying against Hughes.

Neither the manager nor his club are finished yet. With just one win in their last nine league games, Falkirk are still four points behind second-bottom Inverness, and time is fast running out, but with the split now decided, their remaining five matches will be against the SPL's lesser sides. And next weekend's Scottish Cup semi-final against Dunfermline Athletic also has the potential to lift their spirits. "If we can get through that, it would give us great confidence for the last five games," said Hughes. "We are capable of winning them all."

His counterpart, Csaba Lazslo, was frustrated that his team had not taken their first-half chances, most of which were thanks to their Portuguese midfielder, Bruno Aguiar. Several times during that opening period he collected the ball on the halfway line and carried it deep into his opponents' half with a mixture of bravado and body strength that immediately put Falkirk's defence on the back foot. On one such occasion, he reached the edge of the penalty area before laying it wide to Andy Driver, who should have done better. The winger opted for accuracy rather than power and demonstrated neither, placing his shot wide of the far post.

When Aguiar repeated the trick a short time later, again setting up Driver on the right, the result this time was a cross. David Obua's downward header was clumsy, but when it bounced up off the turf, and nearly over Dani Mallo, only the Falkirk goalkeeper's tip over the crossbar prevented a goal. Aguiar's free kick down by the corner flag also caused confusion, although Falkirk were able to breathe easy after the flick by Ruben Palazuelos, and a bumbling attempt by Marius Zaliukas to convert from three yards came to nought. Add to that Aguiar's sliced shot from 20 yards after an Elliot knockdown, and you get the general idea.

Hughes' players had ridden their luck, but they went on to make the most of it, however rare their forays up the pitch. They managed not a single effort on goal until early in the second half. Not that there was ever any prospect of Michael Higdon's weak header finding its way past Kello. Poor Higdon, his club's only fit striker, had a lean time of it, supported only by wide men in the shape of Neil McCann and Scott Arfield, and it was another 20 minutes before Falkirk tried their luck again. A cross from the left found its way through to Patrick Cregg, who blazed his shot over the bar.

"Hearts will know they have been in game," said Hughes. "But I'm honest enough to admit that we need to win games at this stage of the season." His future, as well as the club's, depends on it.