Had Hibs’ recruitment efforts worked out differently last summer the man whose goal denied them their preferred route through the Premiership play-offs would have been playing for them but Falkirk’s Paul Watson denies that missing out on an Easter Road contract offered him any additional motivation.
The 25-year-old, who spent the previous two seasons with the third of the play-off contenders Raith Rovers, is unclear on why the proposed deal fell through but admits it came close to happening.
“I came close to signing for Hibs last summer,” he said.
“It didn’t happen so I’m happy to be a Falkirk player and I am looking forward to the (play-off) semi-final, whomever we play, but it’s funny how things work out in football. I had passed a medical with Hibs and I think it was a breakdown in communications between different parties.
“I’ve not got a bad word to say about Hibs, though. They were good to me when I was there and I’m enjoying myself at Falkirk. It’s worked out well for me in the end.
“I jumped at the chance of joining Falkirk and it’s a great group of boys we have here. We have a great team spirit. We’ve only been beaten four times in the league this season, which is incredible.”
Watson’s headed goal, three minutes into the second half of Sunday’s meeting with Morton, was his fifth of the season and rewarded his side for their superiority to that point. However he acknowledged that they had become nervous afterwards, particularly as news filtered through that Hibs had not only broken their deadlock against Queen of the South at Easter Road, but had scored a second which brought them within range of the four goal win they would have needed to overhaul Falkirk in the race for second spot.
“It was a long 90 minutes. We were aware of what was going on at Hibs. The message came on that they had gone 2-0 up,” he said.
“We knew at that stage we were fine, but if they had managed to make it 3-0 then it would have got even more tense. I thought up until we scored we were in control, but after that we sat back a bit and let them come at us.”
He knows that in missing out on going to Hibs he went to a club that, in spite of Falkirk’s Scottish Cup final appearance last May, was much less fancied for the promotion race, but that has only added to the sense of satisfaction in having split the division’s best resourced teams as they finished runners-up to Rangers.
“I think it’s a massive achievement,” said Watson.
“Nobody gave us a chance at the start of the season. Everyone thought we would drop away but the manager kept at us and we managed to maintain our standards right to the end of the season.”
Manager Peter Houston has stressed that they will have achieved nothing unless they go on to claim promotion but the Falkirk players now have the chance to recover while weighing up their next opponents and while the strength of Hibs’ squad means they remain formidable adversaries Watson reckons there is no guarantee they will be Falkirk’s next opponents.
“Raith Rovers are the form team in the league at the moment,” he observed.
“They are absolutely flying. They’ve got a few boys back from injury too like Craig Barr and I wouldn’t like to play them just now.”
However he knows that neither of them will want to face Falkirk either, Raith Rovers having failed to beat them in four meetings, two of which Falkirk won, while the only winning goal in their encounters with Hibs was the result of a highly controversial penalty awarded to the Edinburgh side way back in October.
“We avoid two very hard games and the 11 day gap will allow us to get over any knocks and make sure we are all fit and ready for the semi-final,” said Watson.
“It’s going to be a different dynamic to a league match but we are looking forward to it. It will be my first experience of the play-offs and I am looking forward to it.”
Since the Premiership team that confronts whichever Championship side comes through will have suffered at least four times as many league defeats as Falkirk have in the course of the last nine months Watson knows that should favour his side in terms of mindset too.
“If we come through would we fancy ourselves against the 11th team in the Premiership? You’ve got to,” he said, noting that Hamilton’s recovery from losing two nil at home in the first leg of the play-off final against Hibs two years ago provides evidence that it can be done by a team from the lower league.
“We go into the semi-final full of confidence and if we come through that we will approach the final with confidence too.”
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