Falkirk’s flamingo among the pigeons was in position thanks to boss McKinnon

The Bairns were truly in the pink when the zany right-back sent his sweet strike into the net from 35 yards – but he was only in place to fire his rocket thanks to boss Ray McKinnon.

The boss said: “Michael is saying he meant it. It was a great strike and the good thing about it was we had been having a good chat about where he should be when we are out of possession and when we are attacking. He was in exactly the right position we had been telling him to be in when he scored it, that’s why he got it.

“If he was any wider, the ball would have gone out wide and the chance would have been gone. But because he was in the right position he could take the ball forward and take the hit at goal, so it was great he was paying attention and great he got his goal.

“That re-affirms to him where we need to be in an attacking sense.”

Doyle was even cheerier after the game than his usual hyperactive demeanour and tipped it as a potential goal of the season when fulfilling his post-match media duties.

And the boss picked up on his FalkirkTV interview too.

McKinnon added: “He has been walking on cloud nine after it. I did hear he made some ridiculous quote about flamingos playing amongst pigeons. He’s off his rocker!”

And what was Doyle on about?

When discussing his strike with FalkirkTV’s Lewis Connolly, Doyle explained: “When we come up against teams they are happy to sit behind the ball because we’re the good team and we’re the scalp.

“They’re happy to get a draw against us, but we’re not. We want to win every game.

“When we get the first goal it settles everyone down and we play like we can play and we start to feel like flamingos amongst the pigeons.”