If tomorrow’s long distance duel for the preferred play-off spot among the Championship contenders is to be influenced by the courage of convictions then Mark Kerr thinks Falkirk have the upper hand.

Victory for the Bairns against Morton will leave Hibs needing to win by three more goals than they do against Queen of the South and the veteran defender reckons he and his team-mates have shown their mettle in getting into this position.

“You’d have expected Hibs to finish 20 points ahead of us, no problem,” the 34-year-old acknowledged.

“I think that’s why the pressure is on them. It will be on us too but we will have pressure on Sunday because we’ve been second for a while now and we are expected to finish second, but that’s good pressure.”

A number of jibes questioning Falkirk’s capacity to cope with that have been attributed to players and management at Easter Road but Kerr insisted that has done nothing to undermine their confidence.

“We believe we are as good as Hibs,” he asserted.

“If we felt inferior, they might get in our heads but they don’t. Them saying things doesn’t make any difference to us.

“If we thought they were a lot better maybe they would catch us but we think we are as good as any team in the league.

“We give teams respect. When we play Morton, we know they are a good side. I think that’s where we have got it right. We don’t go into games thinking we are better than teams but we go out there and try to show we are better than them.”

He expresses amusement at the way Hibs seem to be employing the same psychological tactics as ultimately failed when they were contending for the title with Rangers before falling away.

“It was Rangers and Hibs at the start of the season. They were having a go at each other, but when Rangers pulled away, the attention turned to us. That’s what I think is funny and so do the boys. It’s just mind games but it doesn’t affect us,” Kerr observed.

Indeed it seems it is a strategy that may have proved counter-productive since the way in which Kerr claims Hibs players have distanced themselves from comments such as the questioning from among their ranks of whether Falkirk have ‘big game players’ has drawn him to conclude that they are the ones feeling the pressure such exchanges can generate.

“It certainly does when 15 minutes into a game against Hibs at Easter Road you have boys coming up and apologising, saying they didn’t say that (big game players) in the papers,” he said.

“That’s when you realise that they’ve got a bit of respect for us but they maybe say things they don’t really mean. If you are putting that in the paper and you don’t mean it then what’s the point of saying it?

“Two boys also said it to me in the tunnel beforehand, giving me respect. The boy maybe meant it not to come out like that. I could read this interview in the paper and think ‘I’ve not meant to put it like that’.

“That does sometimes happen but when it keeps happening and keeps happening then you start to think maybe there’s a bit of arrogance there.

“It’s probably great for you newspaper boys, but this is not me slaughtering Hibs. I’m not slagging anyone. They are a good team but I don’t see the point in all the talk all the time.

“Hibs are a good side, but if results don’t go your way all the time maybe it’s not down to luck.”

One of a small group of senior players, along with Lee Miller and David McCracken, credited by manager Peter Houston with having done a fine job in guiding youthful colleagues on and off the pitch, Kerr believes that any effect of those mind games on Falkirk has been positive, reinforcing the feeling within their ranks that they have the upper hand on Hibs in psychological terms..

“It can motivate you, yes, but it always seems to come from one side as far as I can see,” he pointed out.

“I don’t hear us saying much. It’s mind games. Morton’s park was terrible, I heard, last week when they drew there. We were lucky apparently that we got a man sent off and a penalty kick against us (when they drew 2-2 at Easter Road). I don’t know who is lucky there.

“It doesn’t bother me. We hear it every game, but that’s what happens when you are the team at the top. They try and pick away at you and take the focus off what you are doing, but we are mentally strong as a group. It doesn’t affect us.”