In pictures: Falkirk’s last nine games against Morton

Ahead of that match against gaffer Dougie Imrie’s Inverclyde side on Saturday, July 9, at Cappielow Park, with kick-off at 3pm, here’s a look back over the teams’ last nine meetings, all in the championship.

Honours have been almost even but Morton, sixth-place finishers in the second tier last season with 40 points from 36 games, just have the edge, having won four of those games to the Bairns’ three, with two drawn.

The last time they played was back in April 2019, with ex-Bairns star Charlie Telfer and Greg Kiltie scoring on 54 and 47 minutes respectively in a 2-0 win at the Falkirk Stadium that put their hosts on the way to relegation from the second tier to the League 1 berth they’ve been stuck in ever since.

Their preceding game, at the start of the month before, saw Paul Dixon red-carded on the hour mark but the Bairns held out for a 1-1 away draw, thanks to a 40th-minute Zak Rudden goal cancelling out Kiltie’s opener eight minutes previously.

The game before that was a goalless draw in Falkirk in mid-December 2018, with then manager Ray McKinnon’s hosts managing just two shots on target, one fewer than their visitors.

That season’s first meeting of the two sides, a 1-0 away defeat in October 2018, also saw a Falkirk player sent off, namely Italian goalkeeper Leonardo Fasan on 49 minutes. The only goal of the game was scored by Robert McHugh on 76 minutes.

Their last meeting of the preceding campaign was a 3-1 home victory for the Bairns in March 2018, with Aaron Muirhead, Andrew Nelson and Alex Jakubiak on the scoresheet for the hosts on four, 18 and 30 minutes respectively and Gary Harkins replying on 90.

Falkirk also won the match before, edging out Morton 1-0 away, courtesy of a 20th-minute Craig Sibbald goal, in mid-January 2018.

Things didn’t go their way in November 2017, however, as new manager Paul Hartley’s side went down 3-0 at home, the Greenock outfit’s scorers being Harkins on nine minutes and Robert Thomson on 43 and 61.

Their first meeting of that season, at the end of September 2017, went the same way as the third, with Falkirk winning 1-0 away. Their scorer that time round was Joe McKee on 62 minutes.

That result was reversed in their final meeting of the campaign before, in March 2017, Morton winning 1-0 at the Falkirk Stadium, kudos for that victory going to English striker Kudus Oyenuga. The 29-year-old Londoner’s goal against then gaffer Peter Houston’s hosts was scored on 79 minutes.