Mrs Arfield might need a bigger mantlepiece as son Scott�s latest award is sure to be followed by many others, writes Stewart Fisher

PEACE, it appears, has broken out again in the Arfield household. Scott Arfield made the mistake of rashly dedicating his first-ever SPL Young Player of the Month Award to his grandmother, only to have his mother Angela pull rank and claim it for the parental home, so rest assured there is only one final destination for his latest piece of silverware.

"I gave the last one to my gran but my mum was wanting it as well so it was a fight between the two of them," the Falkirk midfielder said, after claiming the Clydesdale Bank award for September. "My mum just said well he still stays in the house so you might as well just give it to me'. My nan was a bit gutted, so I'll make sure I give this one to her."

Not that there is likely to be a shortage of medals to be shared around the collective mantlepieces of the entire Arfield family for long if the 19-year-old continues to accumulate plaudits at his current rate. A total of 39 appearances in his debut season was impressive enough, but on the early evidence of this campaign, Arfield is continuing to clear each hurdle placed in front of him.

Falkirk expanded their midfield resources this summer with the addition of Neil McCann, Burton O'Brien and Sean Lynch to the existing quartet of Patrick Cregg, Arnau Riera, Kevin McBride and Russell Latapy, and although early season injuries have been a factor, Arfield's response has been to start every one of the club's nine matches this season.

Those dressing room sceptics who challenged him to improve his scoring rate have been silenced with four goals in all competitions, equalling his tally for the whole of last season. His integration into Billy Stark's Scotland Under-21 side was confirmed by an accomplished performance in the holding role against Slovakia which surprised even his manager.

But perhaps the images which sum up Arfield best are the decidedly less glamorous ones. He is the kid "running on his own" when training finishes; the figure pounding the tarmac on twice-weekly 40-minute endurance runs in addition to all his work on the training ground.

"I do it twice a week, just a 40 minute run, just to keep on my toes and hopefully get a game on a Saturday," he said. "I don't know how many miles it is. I just run for 40 minutes and see where it takes me."

Recipients of personal awards are usually gracious when asked to comment on their achievements and Arfield is another whose feet seem cemented to the ground.

His brother Stuart, a former youth player at Raith Rovers, "slates" him every week from the stands at the Falkirk Stadium, and "goalscoring, although I have picked it up", "tackling" and "heading" are three areas he feels he still must work on. Just as in December, he isn't sure what all the fuss is about.

"I didn't even think I deserved it to be honest with you, apart from the three goals," he said. "Obviously that was the main aspect that I wanted to work on - scoring goals and making that killer pass.

"This time last year I was just slashing at everything, and the gaffer would go off his nut about it after the game. This year I think I've showed a little bit more composure and just slotted them in."

Those who think the top six is an arbitrary dividing line would be best advised to whisper it near the Falkirk Stadium, where making it into the SPL's top half dozen is reaching almost obsessive proportions. "I think this is the strongest squad the gaffer has ever had," Arfield said.

"When you finish seventh for the last two seasons, and we were only a point away from it last year, it is just so devastating. There is an expectation amongst the boys to be in the top six this year, and I think we have the squad to go there. That is the least we expect."

Considering the continued personal growth of one of their most talented youngsters, it is ironic Falkirk continue to experience certain growing pains as a club. Like most of the managers who made Scottish football great - including, Sir Alex Ferguson - John Hughes is the kind of football manager who manages a club, rather than a team.

With work set to begin on a new 2000-seat stand at Westfield to take the overall capacity to 9000, Hughes made an impassioned plea to try to fill it.

The first part is finding a way to attract back those fans lost during the move from Brockville, or who leave the area every week for Parkhead or Ibrox. If not, there was an even more radical suggestion that a new generation of fans should be reared with ticket giveaways for youngsters linked to the club's youth development schemes.

"We played Ajax - one of the top teams in European football - and we played in front of three or four thousand," Hughes said. "It is not good enough. It can't take my ambition where I want to go. We need to take the fan base up to about six to eight thousand.

"We are going to build another stand to make sure we can house them," he added, "and I am not having a go at the real supporters where it has been in their blood since they were born, their dad being a Falkirk supporter and always coming along and supporting their home-town team with pride.

"It is not these guys I am having a go at - it is all these guys who jump on your buses from your local town and watch Celtic and Rangers. We are giving them a real product on the park, and there is stuff we are doing at this club that is worth it to come along and support.

"We have got the dyed in the wool guys but for us to go to the next level we need to double our fan base. I think we lost a lot of them when we left Brockville and went to the new place.

"If we are going to build this new stand and we can't fill it then I would like to see the tickets going out free to the kids, through the academy, through the youth system and into the schools and try to make sure that their first experience of football is watching Falkirk."

First, though, is the challenge of Motherwell this afternoon. Hughes was at Fir Park on Thursday and for one night only become "a Motherwell supporter, up there cheering and desperate for them to do well". Things will be slightly different this afternoon.