Iain Russell: Surreal day ends on an emotional roller-coaster

Last Saturday was a surreal day. I went through many emotions.

I woke up on Saturday morning with a feeling of emptiness; I didn’t have the butterflies I normally wake up with on match day. Being injured in football is horrible as it takes away the one thing you love doing.

Saturday mornings are all about the excitement and buzz of knowing that you are preparing for a match. The minute you wake up, switch on Sky Sports and have your breakfast, there is a special feeling compared to a normal morning.

As you go through your morning rituals and prepare to leave the house for the stadium, all you can think about is kick-off. Something was missing for me as I met all the boys. They were all buzzing for the match. I was flat as I nursed tendonitis.

However, being injured is part of the game and I just have to stay strong and work hard at my rehabilitation in order to get back as soon as possible.

I tried to get involved as much as possible during the pre-match build up and the warm-up and show my support for the boys before taking my seat in the impressive Falkirk Stadium.

I was so confident that the boys would do well, and, if I’m honest, I couldn’t see us losing. After 45 minutes how wrong was I?

Steven Pressley’s side were excellent in a truly dominant first half. Their passing was precise and crisp and they managed to score three goals which were well deserved. I felt for the players and manager. We had worked very hard all week and it seemed to be for nothing.

Did I believe we could come back from this? Yes I did. I have faith in the quality we have at Livingston and, as I have mentioned on so many occasions, each one of the players would run through a wall for each other.

The boys didn’t let me down. They didn’t let anyone down. Each one of the players should be so proud of their second-half performance. The first half was poor but it just shows the character we have in our squad to come back as well as they did.

Each of the three goals we scored to get back on level terms was class: a superb individual goal from Bobby Barr, an absolute rocket from 30 yards from Keaghan Jacobs and a touch of class from Fozzy [Mark Fotheringham]. I was celebrating every goal like I was back at Broomfield supporting my beloved Airdrie as a kid.

With ten minutes to go, I could only see one winner. We were in the ascendency and were playing some of the best football we have played all season.

Football, however, has a way of kicking you in the teeth even when you are on a high. Chasing a winner we were perhaps always going to be vulnerable to the counter-attack.

You don’t always get what you deserve and on Saturday the boys definitely didn’t deserve to lose 4-3 – a sucker-punch right at the death.

A wonderful game of football and a great advert again for the SFL, but try telling that to the Livingston squad after the match.

The dressing-room was like a morgue. The team went through so many highs and lows in just 90 minutes and were then left with absolutely nothing to show for it.

We must, and will, pick ourselves up for next weekend’s match. There is no time to feel sorry for ourselves in this harsh division.