[ritchiebaby]

Hibs can continue their recent great run of only 1 defeat in the last 13 Championship games. That defeat was against Falkirk by 1-0 early in December and Hibs also lost the corresponding home game early in the season, also by 1-0.

Saturday will be the perfect opportunity to reverse those results and Hibs will be boosted by the availability of Jason Cummings, who won the appeal against the alleged offensive gesture, which was judged to be not proven. There will be two strikers missing though, with Dominique Malonga away on ACON duty and ex-Falkirk hero, Farid El Alagui, still out injured after four months. New boys Martin Boyle, on loan from Dundee and came on against Hearts, and Franck Dja Djedje, signed on an 18 month contract, will vie for a start beside Cummings.

The defence should be fairly settled, with the only cause for concern being David Gray's absence due to his continuing groin problem. He is due to undergo an operation on Monday and is expected to be out for 4 to 6 weeks. Callum Booth has been an able deputy, as a substitute replacing Gray in the last two matches. Keeper Mark Oxley has had his loan deal from Hull City extended to the end of the season and will again be in goal. Jordon Forster is almost ready for a return to the action and might make it onto the bench on Saturday.

Falkirk will be stuffy opponents as usual, with their winner in the last game coming in injury time from David McCracken, Phil's brother.    They have signed 4 players already this month and Peter Houston is the December Manager of the Month, so things are going well for them just now. However, I see no reason why Hibs shouldn't continue their policy of getting stuck in right from the first whistle and try to dominate play and goal-scoring chances, and win the game with some flowing football.

My team would be:-

Oxley,
Both, Fontaine, Hanlon, Stevenson,
Handling, Robertson, McGeouch, Allan,
Cummings, Boyle.

Djedje, Stanton and Craig to come on from the bench.

[0762]

3-3 and this was a good match to watch for all the fans. A Cummings hat trick and, at 3-1, Hibs looking good for a first win against a battling Falkirk side and dominating the game but the big moment was Martin Boyle rounding McDonald and he just needed to roll the ball into the empty net, 4-1 and game over! He somehow managed to kick the ball a foot past McDonald's far post - a shocker and yet he had a good game and combined well with Cummings. Yet again, Hibs have allowed a poorer team to retrieve some kinda positive result but thankfully they didn't win it and they would not have deserved to win it either! And Liam Fontaine's nightmare defensive display did not help.

[St Charles Owl]

Two steps forward and one step back, seems to be your mantra this season. Having been 3-1 up at home you should have won this one comfortably but that old 2 goal lead is never as comfortable as it seems on paper!!!

[ritchiebaby]

The usual Hibs performance, going from leading comfortably to walking a tightrope at the end. One of these days, we're actually going to give someone beneath us a heavy defeat. But at the moment, it has only accentuated that we play much better and are much more competitive against Rangers and Hearts. Until we can finish teams off in games we have controlled, then we will always struggle to do as well as we should.

All credit to Falkirk for their contribution to an open game, but 1 point out of a possible 9 against them is simply not good enough.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

I was following the match on my score app and twitter. To come from behind to equalise was great. Then a goal was given to Falkirk according to my app. Then the score was corrected back to 1-1 and according to twitter it was disallowed due to any infringement. Then we go 2-1 and 3-1 up. The next update I saw was 3-3! As Huddersfield were 3-1 up at the time Ii was convinced that both my teams were going to throw it away on the same day. Thankfully not. But, honestly, you'd think you'd have a nice cushion when you're 3-1 up. But never can you sit on your laurels.