No sublime, only the ridiculous in an official farce

Alloa 0 - Falkirk 1. Falkirk made the short journey home from Recreation Park with a full three points thanks to a first-half penalty from Davie Nicholls.

However, the visiting captain aside, there will be few who look back fondly on this desperate 90 minutes.

The only thing that saved this display from utter anonymity was the most bizarre display of refereeing seen around these parts for quite a while. Man-in- the-middle John Rowbotham seemed genuinely to be officiating at quite a different game altogether.

The errant official crowned one of his poorer displays with two of the season's softest penalty awards; though he had the decency and even-handedness to give one to each side, but just looked out of touch all afternoon.

The early signs indicated that the 1,186 in attendance might be in for a reasonable afternoon as the visitors spent much of the early minutes buzzing around the Wasps' goal and Gareth Hutchison squandered a couple of decent chances before they benefited from the first of the contentious penalty awards.

Mr Rowbotham adjudged that Hutchison's shot had been stopped by Steven Thomson's hand, which seemed a bit on the harsh side given that the ball had been driven straight at him from point-blank range.

Captain Nicholls was unperturbed, though, as he stroked the kick home, sending Guido van de Kamp diving the wrong way.

Four minutes later Rowbotham missed what looked to be a stone- waller when Greig Denham hauled Gareth Evans to the floor deep inside the Falkirk box.

The home side's frustration was partially dampened when the referee allowed them a penalty of their own just before the hour. Again it looked highly dubious though Andy Lawrie was seemingly guilty of flooring Ross Hamilton with a tug to the jersey.

The kick, when it came from Willie Irvine, was poorly directed and Myles Hogarth barely had to move along his line to hold the effort.

Alloa boss Terry Christie, convinced that his side were not out of it, brought three attacking subs on within a matter of minutes but for all the effort there was very little to trouble Hogarth unduly for the remainder of the game.

His counterpart, van der Kamp, was suffering from the same lack of attention at the other end though as the game bogged itself down in an overcrowded midfield and the whole thing drifted towards a flat and anti-climatic conclusion.

Copyright 2001
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