Falkirk skipper McCracken: 'We want to make sure standards are kept up'

Boss Peter Houston and assistant James McDonaugh made their views known both at half-time and in a post-match ‘clear the air’ session.

And McCracken said: “It’s good that the gaffer wants to do something like this. He’s recognised it and it’s because of the standards that we have set. We want to keep those standards very high. If you’re wanting to achieve anything then you need to.

“From our point of view it was a very poor performance. The way the game panned out we went behind and then got ourselves back into it and went in front but then let ourselves down again.

“It’s not the kind of form you want to be having throughout a game, never mind throughout the season so it’s something the gaffer was quick to point out.

“He has previously said at different points in the last couple of weeks that there’s been things he’s not been happy with so it kind of came to a head a wee bit.

“Since the gaffer’s been here, over the course there’s not been too many times like this.

“We’ve not been beaten for the past few games so you could still look at it like that, but because of the standards we’ve set before that’s where it’s come from.

“We’re midway through the season and you want to be hitting some decent form, so there’s two ways to look at it.

“One is that we’re still on an ‘all right’ run, but we want to be taking three points rather than a point and we should really be taking three points.

“There’s stuff to get sorted but I don’t think it’s a major issue.”

McCracken insists Falkirk should still be looking to catch pacesetters Hibs and Dundee United, rather than casting anxious glances over their shoulder at the sides below them.

He said: “That was our focus before the game, catching the ones above us, or at least staying with them. There’s still a lot of games to get played but we want to make the changes now rather than a month or two down the line when we can’t get near them.

“You can’t concentrate on them too much, you need to take care of your own deal. Whatever happens with them happens but making sure that when they do slip up, because I’m sure the’re going to drop points from now until the end of the season, then we’re on top and collecting as many points as we can to take advantage of that.”