Late surge nets full points for Falkirk

The Bairns scored their first opening day league victory since 2007 with a 3-1 win at Montrose – the last two goals coming in the closing minutes during an explosively dramatic ending.

Both sides had enjoyed spells of pleasure in the closed-door fixture at Links Park, with a handful of chances missed by either side as well during the first half.

Falkirk went ahead just a couple of minutes before half time, with Akeel Francis scoring his first goal in Scottish football.

Aidan Quinn headed Montrose level shortly after the restart and the game was poised at 1-1 with only a dozen or so minutes to go.

However, Falkirk co-manager Lee Miller had named himself as a sub and he entered the fray alongside Robbie Leitch and Morgaro Gomis.

And the dying minutes tasted sweet for Falkirk while turning sour for Montrose, with defender Andrew Steeves being sent off by referee Craig Napier for bringing Miller down in the box as he bore down on goal.

Callumn Morrison looked to have made the points safe with a blaster of a penalty kick, while sub Robbie Leitch made certain by shooting home the third.

Falkirk assistant manager David McCracken said they had adapted their play well against a very difficult Montrose side, which never gave up trying. The substitutes made a big impact but the Bairns’ experience showed too, in trying to control the game after the penalty kick and kill it off.

"We went through a wee spell of trying to keep ball and not open the game up too much, while trying to control it in Montrose's defensive third, and we did that,” he said.

"Eventually, we managed to work it through and we were focused in trying to win it back in that area. That was how Robbie managed to break free at the back post.”

A few missed opportunities were piling up for both sides during the first half. Callumn Morrison of Falkirk tried an ambitious half-volley, half overhead kick which went narrowly wide in the 10th minute, after a neat ball through from Blair Alston.

After a quarter of an hour, a mix-up in the Montrose rearguard allowed Alston to poke the ball through to Akeel Francis but the Falkirk man over-ran it and Lennox pushed it to safety, denying Falkirk a fine chance.

Anton Dowds had a good chance on 20 minutes with an angled drive for Falkirk and should have scored, but Lennox made a fine save.

The breakthrough came for Falkirk in 43 minutes, originating from a move on the right. The ball was eventually flicked through by Mark Durnan to Akeel Francis, who casually lobbed it over Lennox's head for the opening goal.

Falkirk possibly deserved to be ahead at the interval – but Montrose made a quick response early in the second half and their pre-break efforts too had probably been worthy of a goal.

Falkirk seemed unable to deal conclusively with a sequence of pressure by the home side and Mochrie’s flick across was headed home skilfully by Quinn.

Aaron Lennox made a very good one-handed save in the home goal around the hour-mark from a powerful shot by Callumn Morrison, as the pattern of shared pressure and chances for both sides proved similar to that of the first half.

The 85th-minute saw Millar menace the Montrose defenders and sprint on to a through ball but Steeves halted him and went for the early bath, with Morrison giving an exemplary lesson in penalty taking.

Leith fired home the third with only a couple of minuted to go – but Montrose even had time to strike the post near the end as they mounted another attack in a crowded goalmouth.