Falkirk win points not plaudits

Falkirk claimed three fortunate points, but precious few plaudits as they edged out crestfallen Ayr to win a dog of a game the visitors will justifiably feel they merited a point from.

Lee Miller rubbed salt in the United wounds

The opening 45 minutes was as turgid a period of football as you could fear sitting through, with both teams battering the ball black and blue with no real design behind their efforts.

That the closest either team came to breaking the stalemate was Luca Gasparotto nodding inches past his own goal says it all about the dearth of incident or quality.

With the dressing room annoyance of Falkirk manager Peter Houston audible in the press room during the interval it was perhaps surprising that it was Ayr who came out stronger after the break.

Kevin Nisbet and then Rab Crawford both forced good work from Danny Rogers in the home goal, before Brian Gilmour passed up a glorious opportunity with a quarter of an hour to go.

It was a miss Ayr were to regret massively, as with the next passage of play United defender Daryll Meggatt inadvertently steered Myles Hippolyte’s long throw into his own net.

Then Lee Miller rubbed salt in the United wounds with an injury-time second from six yards.