Falkirk co-manager Lee Miller saw his side extend their lead at the top of League One to four points after a 2-1 win over Peterhead at the weekend as Cove and Partick Thistle both dropped points in the title race.
The Bairns should have been out of sight by the break and were left clinging on a bit near the end as Jim McInally’s side threatened to come back and snatch a draw, although the hosts never really looked like losing.
Miller watches his side in action from the dugout at the Falkirk Stadium (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Miller has been around the game enough to know his side won’t win every game playing nice football – and Falkirk play some pretty good stuff at times – and confessed that his side won “ugly” against the Blue Toon.
“If you look at the results in our league today, there are no easy games,” Miller said.
“Credit to Peterhead, they took the game to us in the second half. I thought we tremendous in the first half; we really played some good football and tried some nice moves and we were unlucky not to go more than a couple of goals in front. The second half was a totally different game. We maybe made the substitution at half-time when we didn’t need to – David and I will look back at that.
“We spoke to the players at the start of the season and said ‘listen, we’re not going to win games with pretty football every single game’ and we won that one ugly in the end. We were hanging on at the end. That sometimes happens and you’ve got to find a solution to win the game and we’ve done that today.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to Peterhead because they’ve come here with a game-plan and played well in the second half but if you analyse the game in terms of the chances we created, and we’re clinical, we’ve got five or six very, very good chances. Sammo could’ve had a couple more, Ben Hall’s had one cleared off the line, Anton’s had a save onto the crossbar and their keeper has played really well. If you look at it in terms of that, it could’ve been a very different outcome – but they kept at it, deserved their luck and took the game to us in the second half.”
Next up for the League One title hopefuls is the short trip to Broadwood to take on Covid-hit Clyde on Saturday and November’s League One Manager of the Month admits it is business as usual ahead of the game – despite serious concerns over whether it will take place.
“We have to prepare as if it is going to go ahead and prepare the boys and have our analysis done on it,” Miller added.
We’re in a good place, the boys are thriving and we’ve got competition for places in there. There are boys itching to get a game and doing really well in training and showing up well in games. It gives us a good headache in terms of who do we play and who comes on so it’s a good place to be.”