PREPARING for a cup final involves a lot more than just trying to pick the right team.

For those, like Falkirk, who don't get to experience it too often the build-up can often feel like a family getting ready for their first holiday overseas. Have we packed everything? What have we forgotten? Can you check again just to be sure?

Peter Houston and his players have enough to worry about - what with Inverness Caledonian Thistle standing between them and a first Scottish Cup success since 1957 - without fretting about peripheral matters, too. Luckily kitman Gerry Cameron is on his game. Having taken delivery of the new all-white strip that Falkirk will wear at Hampden tomorrow, Gerry, diligently, thought it would be prudent to ensure that everything was in order before setting off. It was lucky that he did.

"We've got a new strip and the kit man, who has had the gear in for a week or so, has gone to get the stuff out today and discovered they've sent us kids socks," revealed Houston. "We would have been going out there with ankle socks on!

"So I've left him up there flapping like a bird just now. We have pairs of socks in there but not the brand new ones that we'd expect to go with the kit.

"Hopefully by courier Puma will get the proper socks up to us in time. It's just as well he checked them because if we'd left it to Saturday morning it would have been like the 1987 FA Cup final when Spurs had their sponsor Holsten on half of their shirts but not on the rest."

Thankfully, Houston is better organised to the extent that, two days before the final, he elected to name his starting XI. He was not of a mind to disclose the details yesterday, and was coy about the chances of Rory Loy been restored to the team following his recovery from a broken leg.

The decision to tell the players who will start the match, he hoped, would help settle any nerves, and allow them to work more specifically on the tactical and technical aspects of their game.

"On Monday and Tuesday we worked on patterns of play and where we could hopefully drag the Inverness players out of position. But when you've named the team you can work with a lot more certainty on your shape, when to press the ball and when to sit off it.

"That was really good to be able to focus on it fully today whereas on Monday and Tuesday it was more "here's how we could do it" and we were swapping players around different positions.

"So the starting XI has been named and I had a chat with one or two players before it. I will name the subs probably at the hotel tomorrow night, I'm in no rush to do that. But today you can sense a bit of a relief in the players to know they are in the team. Probably some of them were expecting it but there's maybe one or two who have been on edge wanting to know if they were starting the game or not."

David McCracken will, almost certainly, be among those on from the start. At 33 years old, the Falkirk captain is one of the more experienced figures in a youthful side who he admits will go into the game as underdogs.

"Obviously, Inverness will be favourites," he conceded."They have done extremely well this year, finishing third [in the SPFL Premiership] and are playing very well.

"We are going to be underdogs but that isn't something that will change our performance. It won't affect how we look at things. It is a one-off game and we are focused on what we need to do.

"There wasn't much hype about us going through the different rounds to get to the final. It probably suited us not getting so much press. There was a lot of talk about Hibs and Celtic.

"As I say, it was good because the moment people start focusing on you it can maybe change your performance. It has been a great journey. The boys have been different class throughout each game, never more so than in the semi-final. It's at that point now where you just want to get the game started."

An added bonus for McCracken is that a Falkirk victory would see them enter the Europa League next season at the expense of his former club St Johnstone.

"If we win the Cup we will take St Johnstone's European place and I would love that to happen," he said.

"Although I played there I didn't leave under the best terms. We have to look at ourselves - anything outside of that is outside of our control. We just want to try to win the cup and get into Europe."

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