THE verbal sparring between championship rivals Peter Houston and Alan Stubbs which has been such a feature of this season intensified again last night when the Falkirk manager insisted the play-off pressure was on the Easter Road club as their football budget was twice the size of his. These two sides, whose enmity dates back to last year's Scottish Cup semi-final, meet in Leith tonight in a Premiership play-off semi-final first leg with top flight outfit Kilmarnock waiting in the final. While there is a respect between both managers and sets of players, neither have been averse to making a point or two in the press.
"The fact is it is Hibs, who are a big club and there is a lot of pressure on them to get back up," said Houston. "The reason Falkirk are construed as underdogs is because of the resources Hibs have - which are far greater than what we have. It would be a massive achievement for Falkirk to go up because of the resources we have got - especially in a season where Rangers and Hibs were in this league. I know what resources Hibs have and it is double ours. It would be kudos to us if we did go up but only if we do go up."
While Falkirk finished ahead of Hibs at the season's end by a margin of just two goals, the Easter Road club have edged the head-to-head this season, winning one and drawing three of their previous meetings. That arrived courtesy of a disputed Jason Cummings penalty in October and Houston feels it won't give the Easter Road club a psychological edge.
“They might look at it that way, I don’t," said Houston. "There has been only one win between the sides and it was a penalty kick that separated the sides - for me it was never a penalty kick. If that is the fine margin between the sides I don’t think it will have a big impact. They might have better players than us in certain areas but they are no better in terms of spirit, character and desire. The reason they have better quality is that they have more money to pay them."
For all this verbal jousting, the Falkirk boss was adamant that the ill feeling wouldn't spill over into indiscipline on the pitch. “I don’t think there has been needle between the teams – it’s been between me and Alan!" said Houston. "There may have been some animosity and verbals - I call it pantomime - but both teams will have the utmost respect for each other when it comes to facing each other. One of their players said 'let’s see if Falkirk are big game players' when we went to Easter Road last month to wind us up and we came back and got a draw.
"So it’s just noising each other up and Alan will do the best he can," he added. "I remember hearing about his press conference two weeks ago when he said Falkirk had to beat Morton – that was him getting it out there.
"I can take that. There is nothing malicious in it. I don’t know Alan particularly well but we have had a cup of tea together and we have had pleasant banter. What you try to do as a manager is take the pressure off your team. It’s about winding other people up. We’re at the stage now where we have done all that. Alan has been cute at it all season and I can do it as well."
While the consensus is that pipping Hibs into second place represents another hugely successful campaign for Houston and his players, the Falkirk manager insisted he will regard this season as a failure if the club fail to win promotion.
"I only class success if you gain something tangible at the end of it all by lifting a trophy," said Houston. "A lot of Falkirk supporters have been saying it has been a great season and that it was wonderful to get to the Scottish cup final last season. For me Falkirk should have won the cup after our second half performance but it was a mistake that cost us. We got many plaudits for that but it is the biggest regret I have had in football.
"Something tangible for me this season would be getting to the play-offs and getting up and being promoted," he added. "If we lose the double header against Hibs or Kilmarnock there will be still be disappointment within me that we did not reach what I hoped to achieve."
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