Falkirk score five at Tynecastle to beat Hearts again
Falkirk won 5-2 at Tynecastle Park on Matchday 13, following up their 2-1 win over Hearts in September with a far more emphatic result.
By Harvey Watkins,
Falkirk won 5-2 at Tynecastle Park on Sunday afternoon in the Scottish Premiership. Hearts scored twice on their own ground and still lost by a wide margin. It was the second time in a matter of weeks that Falkirk had beaten them. The first was a 2-1 win at Falkirk on 15 September.
How the goals came
This was a match that never settled. The scoring started inside four minutes and was still going with a quarter of an hour to play. In order, the goals went as follows:
- 4 minutes: Finley Barbrook
- 17 minutes: Owen Eames
- 33 minutes: Jacob Murrell
- 47 minutes: Jacob Murrell
- 47 minutes: Liam Henderson
- 50 minutes: Sabri Guendouz
- 75 minutes: Cláudio Braga
Jacob Murrell was the only player to score more than once, with goals either side of the interval in the 33rd and 47th minutes. The spell immediately after half-time was the most chaotic of the afternoon, with goals in the 47th, 47th and 50th minutes. Two of them came in the same minute. Cláudio Braga's goal on 75 minutes was the last of the day.
What the scoreline says
Conceding five at home is a heavy result for any side, and there is not much room to argue with a 5-2 margin. Neither team kept the other out. The early start and the burst just after the break suggest a game that was open for long stretches rather than one decided by a single moment.
Some caution is still sensible. A single afternoon, however lopsided, does not establish a pattern. A scoreline like this can come from a few minutes in which everything goes in, as much as from a sustained gap between two teams. The opening of the second half fits that description. How the rest of the game unfolded around it is harder to read from the result alone.
Between these two sides
The broader picture is more telling. Falkirk have now won both of the two most recent meetings with Hearts. The September game was tight, settled by a single goal. This one was not. The second meeting went further in Falkirk's favour than the first, and it came away from home.
That is still a short record to draw firm conclusions from. Two matches can flatter a side or undersell one. On those two results, though, Falkirk have had the better of this fixture lately, and Sunday's result was the clearest sign of it so far.