Rennie: We've taken a big step backward after that performance

Falkirk head coach Martin Rennie said his side had taken a ‘big step backward’ after the Bairns were defeated 2-0 by league leaders Cove Rangers.

Goals from Mitch Megginson and Fraser Fyvie sealed what was a comfortable victory for Paul Hartley’s side who dominated proceedings at the Balmoral Stadium.

Defender Brad McKay was sent off with ten to go for an off the ball incident, with assistant coach Kenny Miller also shown his marching orders after the full time whistle in what was a poor day all round.

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Speaking to the Herald, Rennie admitted expected so much more from his team on the day.

“It was really disappointing,” he said.

"First of all credit to Cove, you could tell they were the team at the top of the league

“They have been proven very hard to score against and that was another good clean sheet for them.

“In the last few weeks we have seen a lot of progress from our team and I was expecting much more from us.

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“The performance wasn’t good enough and I was really disappointed.”

With a sizeable Falkirk support making the two-and-a-half-hour journey to watch the team, he added: “We had so many fans travelling a long distance so I have to apologise to them for what they saw.

“It wasn’t up to the standard I would expect from my side, and that has to change on Tuesday night.”

Steven Hetherington made a return to the starting eleven as one of two changes to the side that won 3-0 away to Alloa Athletic, with Leigh Griffiths up top from the off.

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The head coach said the change at half time to bring off Hetherington for midweek goalscorer Craig McGuffie was an enforced one.

He said: “Steven was poked in the eye so he couldn’t see properly. It was an enforced change.

“We’ve made the decision to get people out on the pitch to make sure they are reaching match fitness quickly.

“It is a risk as they aren’t fully 100% but we feel it has worked in favour in the main so far.

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Assistant head coach Kenny Miller was shown a straight red after full time for whatever he said to referee Colin Steven in a heated exchange, with Rennie not aware of his second man’s dismissal.“I didn’t know about that,” he admitted.

On Brad McKay’s red card he added: “It was a bit of a stramash in the box and I just need to trust the referee on that.

“From my view it looked harsh, I’ve seen our player have someone's hand around his neck.

“There wasn’t too much done about that.

“Getting a man sent off didn’t help.”

With two home matches in quick succession coming up against Peterhead on Tuesday night, and East Fife on Saturday he said bouncing back was key.

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“I’m glad there’s a game coming so quickly because as I’ve said there has been quite good progression but today was certainly not what I was expecting,” he said.

"Tuesday night is important for us to get right.”

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