Today is the day Falkirk fans have been dreading for the last few seasons. They have been relegated from the 2nd tier of Scottish Football for the first time since the 1970s.
Its been a long road, dodging relegation last season by sacking Peter Houston, a manager who took them right to the brink of promotion. Falkirk replaced Houston with Paul Hartley despite his history of falling out with everyone he met and it all seemed rosy having a good January and surviving relegation however this was the start of the end for Falkirk.
Shortly after Hartley joined the club adopted the Brentford method of recruitment, picking up cast offs of larger English clubs and giving them first team games to develop them and then sell them on. This seemed like a fairly decent idea considering the volume of English players dumped each season by the Premier League clubs, however, Falkirk did this at the expense of their Academy which had served them well. The closure of the academy was leaked to the press by the club before the parents at the kids at the academy knew, a real PR own goal.
Hartley recruited well in January using mainly Scottish players and a few loans from England this helped him secure Falkirk's place in the Championship for another year. In the Summer Falkirk moved to full Brentford and it was a complete and utter disaster. Most of the players brought up from England look like they had never seen a football before, combined with comic goalkeeping from former Celtic keeper Leo Fasan meant that Falkirk went to the bottom of the league and stayed there pretty much all season. Hartley was sacked by Falkirk on the 27th August after an abysmal start to the season.
Falkirk didn't hang about looking for a new manager first trying Ian McCall whose Ayr United side were flying high in the Championship flirting with automatic promotion at the time, McCall rejected the Falkirk job and the Falkirk board were straight on the phone to Greenock Morton Manager Ray McKinnon. Ray and his assistant Darren Taylor left Morton as soon as they got the call something which later cost Falkirk £60,000. Looking back it seems a huge amount for the Falkirk board to risk by not clearing his "transfer" with the Morton board. Ray, however, left Raith Rovers under a cloud and now leaving Morton in the lurch really has marked his card, meaning if Falkirk punts him he may struggle for work in the upper reaches of Scottish Football.
McKinnon really struggles to get Falkirk playing with any real purpose. Even in January with the 3rd clear out of players in 2 season his team often tried to hold on to the point they start the game with. This negative style never really got the fans on side and losing twice to rivals Dunfermline at their home ground put Ray under a lot of pressure. Falkirk rallied at the start of the new year and got off the foot of the table, however they choked and found themselves chasing the pack for the remaining 10 games. The last few games were obviously crunch time for Falkirk and down in Dumfries Falkirk scored what they thought was a last-second penalty deep in to injury time - however the Falkirk players ran over to the decent support who invaded the pitch for some time forcing the referee to add on time, Queens scored to get a valuable point in the additional injury time which kept Falkirk rooted to the bottom of the table.
Next up for Falkirk was a trip 13 miles north to rivals Dunfermline. Falkirk had got all three points in their last visit to East End Park when they scored their only shot on goal and would hope for a vital three points again a loss would all but relegate Falkirk something the Fifers would be very much looking to do. Amazingly Falkirk again left Fife with all three points after Dunfermline had a penalty saved and hit the woodwork 4 times, Falkirk scoring their only shot on goal in a second-half breakaway.
Falkirk then went on to play Morton at home which had been a hotly contested match after McKinnon did the dirty on the Greenock side with the Greenock Telegraph leading the line by producing "Judas" posters with their former managers face on it. Morton won the game comfortably leaving Falkirk 2 games to save themselves knowing they would need 6 points and a few favours to get out the drop zone. Events have obviously transpired against Falkirk losing 2-0 to Dundee United but beating champions Ross County on the final day of the season 3-2 but as much as the results didn't go their way it by no means makes up for appointing the wrong manager twice, wasting money on a new recruitment system and fines for tapping up a management team.
Falkirk do look in real trouble with no obvious quick fix on the table. After today's match, Falkirk fans demonstrated against their board of directors who are almost certainly to blame for this mess they find themselves in, however, they are unlikely to be going anywhere unless the supporters can buy them out. One thing is for sure the club needs to be gutted again but with a better core to replace the inner workings of the club, both interns of the boardroom but also in the dugout and on the pitch. Ray McKinnon ended his post-match interview by saying he was determined to get Falkirk back to where they deserve to be, in the Premiership. Sadly for you Ray, you can't decide where Falkirk end up and after 10 years in the Championship, I don't think Falkirk deserve to be anywhere other than League one after the season they have had.
Their fans deserve better, but the club is where it is due to the mismanagement of the board and coaching staff. League One will be fascinating next year.
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