Stokes makes it 2-1

By Graham Barnstaple
January 29 2012

Celtic made it through to the League Cup Final thanks to a 3-1 win over Falkirk in an entertaining semi final.

The opening stages of the game sawFalkirktake the game to Celtic forcing Neil Lennon on to the touch line to rant at his team, and this seemed to have some effect.

Firstly Brown had a shot tipped on to the post, then Rogne saw a header hit the post before Celtic opened the scoring on 26 minutes. The ref decided the grappling between Dods and Rogne was worthy of a penalty much to the anger of the Bairns and their followers.

Brown took the kick and sent keeper McGovern the wrong way to give the Celts the lead. The Bairns were not to be kept quiet and they equalised before half time with a sweeping move ending with a side footed finish fromFulton.

As the whistle blew for half time Bairns boss Steven Pressley strode on to the pitch to ask the referee, as he said, “If he would have given the penalty decision at the other end.” He then went on to say he wasn’t proud of this, “I am not proud of what I did but I am a passionate manager and was disappointed with decisions made in the game.”

He was sent to the stand for his troubles and spent the second half in the Press seats sending messages to his coaching team via a runner.

Celtic hit woodwork again in the 55^th minute when Rogne hit the underside of the bar from close range. They did go one ahead a minute later with Stoked firing a free kick past the stranded McGovern from about 25 yards out.

Falkirkwere hit with a late sting in the tail when they lost a third with only four minutes to go. Hooper’s pace created some space to allow him to get a cross in to allow Stokes to score from close range.

The First Division side put a lot into the game but at the end of the day they were beaten by a team with a bit more quality in depth.