PETER HOUSTON, the Falkirk manager, has admitted he is preparing to go through 24 hours of torture as he agonises over whether he should hand his first-choice striker Rory Loy a starting jersey in the William Hill Scottish Cup final.

Loy has been out of action since March 6, when he picked up a stress fracture on his ankle during the club's quarter-final victory over Queen of the South at Palmerston, and has been restricted to a short appearance in a bounce game with Swansea City last week.

The 27-year-old has also been through a two-week fitness programme at the Football Association's St George's Park complex in Staffordshire, but Houston concedes he is lacking sharpness and insists he will take another day to weigh up all the options before naming his team for Saturday's meeting with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Houston informed his players of the starting line-up for Hampden Park two days before winning the cup with Dundee United in 2010 and will follow the same routine again with the SPFL Championship side.

"The only decision I have to make is whether we start Rory or bring him off the bench and I'll make that on Thursday," he said. "I have never had a decision like this before.

"I am 75 per cent clear on what I am going to do, but I just want to sleep on it again.

"He has looked good in training and he's physically fit, but his sharpness levels could be better, if I am being honest.

"He's a big player for us, though. If he hadn't got injured against Queen of the South and he and Baird had continued the way they had, we might have made the play-offs.

"He did two weeks at St George's Park prior to last week down in Swansea with us. He's done all the pool stuff and the one-on-one stuff on the fancy treadmills they have there.

"They battered him fitness-wise and the last two weeks have been about trying to work on his sharpness, but he has not played a competitive game since March, which is always a problem.

"He's keen to start and it would give me a lift if his name was on the team-sheet, but I'll only do it if I am 100 per cent certain in my own mind that he's not going to get a kick and come off after five minutes.

"I think he thought his Falkirk career was over when we got through the semi-final because he's signed that pre-contract with Dundee, but his attitude and commitment have been exemplary.

"He has worked his tail off for Falkirk and he was almost in tears when he got injured thinking he was going to miss that semi-final because he's always felt the big occasions passed him by, in many ways."

John Baird is ineligible as a result of having played in the Scottish Cup for Queen of the South and that will make the prospect of fielding Loy all the more appealing to Houston.

He is certainly giving the impression that he is sorely tempted to go for broke and play Loy from the opening whistle.

"If I got 75 minutes out of him from the start, I would probably settle for that because we do have some good young players like Botti Biabi, big Taylor Morgan and Scottie Shephehrd," said Houston.

"It might be really important at the start of the game that he is with us, not only for the boost that would give his fellow players but for the fans as well. That's what's going through my head as well."