Milne calls for SPL focus

KENNY MILNE today insisted Falkirk have to forget about their stunning cup win over Celtic if they are to have any chance of putting one over on Hearts.

The Bairns go into tonight's match against the Tynecastle side on a high after knocking holders Celtic out of the CIS Cup last week in a sudden-death penalty shoot-out.

It was without doubt one of the best results in the club's history, but Milne believes they have to put the Parkhead victory behind them for the next few weeks at least and get back to concentrating on the bread-and-butter business of life in the SPL. Falkirk were paired with Kilmarnock in the draw for the semi-final but that match won't take place until January and Milne says they have to concentrate on their league form: "We can go into the game on Monday night with some confidence because of the win over Celtic. If you can't take confidence from that kind of result, then when can you?

"But what we've really got to do now is try to forget about the result at Parkhead. I know that is going to be difficult because it was a great night. We've got to try to put the whole cup thing to bed for now because the semi-final is still a few weeks away yet, we need to concentrate on the league because that is our real bread and butter. We're unbeaten in our last three games and that's great compared to last season because I don't think we managed to really put any kind of run of results together. We would maybe win one then lose the next one. Things have been a bit different this year and hopefully we can use the Celtic result and build on it.

"We're under no illusions though because we know that it is going to be a hard game."

Milne knows that the win over Celtic will lead to raised expectations of the Bairns over the next few weeks but he warned that Falkirk will have to be at their best if they are to follow that up by putting one over on his old side. The defender hasn't been on a winning side against Hearts since leaving Tynecastle three years ago and is desperate to put that right. He added: "There's always the danger that, because we beat Celtic, the expectation levels are raised and people expect us to go out and just turn Hearts over. We know that's not going to happen. We've yet to beat them this season and we didn't manage to beat them in the whole of last season.

"We know that there has been a bit of unrest and a few problems off the field in the last few weeks, it's been well publicised, but we will still have to be at our best to beat them. I've been with Cowdenbeath, Partick and obviously now Falkirk but I've still never managed to beat Hearts so it would be nice to get the right result this time."

The Tynecastle side will be looking to bounce back from their midweek cup exit at the hands of Hibs and Milne says his side should expect to face a backlash from that result. However, with a new cutting edge in the shape of on-loan Anthony Stokes, Milne is hoping the Bairns will have enough in their locker to bag all three points and pile the pressure on stand-in Hearts boss Eduard Malofeev.

He added: "Hearts will still be hurting from their defeat to Hibs, especially as it meant they went out of the cup, and they will be determined to go out and get the three points against us tonight.

"All we can do is go out and play our football the way that we have been over the last few weeks and hope that's good enough to get a win.

"Anthony Stokes has been brilliant for us this season and I think he has just added that cutting edge that we were perhaps lacking. He's added a new dimension to the team. Obviously it's a team game, he would be the first to tell you that, and we're playing a lot of good football, creating a lot of chances, and he's putting a good few of them away.

"He's come into the team full of confidence and he's been turning that into goals.

"Last season we lost a lot of games by just the odd goal which was quite hard to take, but this year we seem to be keeping more clean sheets at the back and obviously with Stokesy banging in the hat-tricks at the other end, we're scoring more too."

Taken from the Scotsman