peter's eyes on the prize

However the seven point haul shutdown Hibs’ points advatage and Falkirk overtook Alan Stubbs’ side at the weekend.

The race for second place – and the luxury of two play-off games less at the end of the season – is well and truly on, but the Bairns boss is focussed on one target, and that’s beating Dumbarton on Saturday.

Hibs, on the other hand, have the League Cup final on Sunday before a midweek Scottish Cup replay in Inverness to contend with.

“I hope their games go to extra-time and penalties!” joked Houston.

“It’s great for them,” he added “They might have a lot of games, important games, coming up but I’m more concerned about our games and keeping my players fit.

“You can have your fingers in too many pies but that’s what successful teams have all the time. They’ve had great cup runs but they have to focus on second place too if that’s where they want to finish. We still have a lot of work to do ourselves.

“I don’t sit and think about Hibs, I focus on our next game which is Dumbarton, it’s a difficult venue where Hibs have lost recently. We still have to play them and on our day we can beat anyone.”

The Bairns boss took in the Sons 3-1 win on Tuesday which all but secures their safety in the Championship. The Bairns are not far off guaranteeing a top three place and could break the 60-point barrier in Saturday’s BBC Alba match.

“My target has been 15 points a quarter, we can achieve our season target with one more win. We have been very consistent and we’ll just focus on Dumbarton – it’s our opportunity to put more pressure on.”