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MITCH Megginson netted a glorious double as we beat the League One leaders with an outstanding team display at Balmoral Stadium.

Team captain Megginson opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a brilliant overhead kick and showed great composure to make it 2-0 early in the second period.

The latter came just after veteran striker Connor Sammon had rattled our crossbar with a header, but it would have been extremely harsh on us if we had done anything but win on an afternoon when we outplayed our opponents for the bulk of the 90 minutes.

That was the only occasion that Falkirk threatened our goal thanks to some top defending from Ross Graham, Ryan Strachan, Scott Ross and Kieran Ngwenya.

The win brought us level on points with the Bairns at the top of the table as we head into what is certain to be a thrilling finale to the campaign.

Manager Paul Hartley made two changes to the starting line-up from the previous week’s victory over Dumbarton, with midfielder Connor Smith and defender Ngwenya coming in.

Teenager Smith, on loan to us from Hearts, was outstanding, despite being on the end of a fair number of robust challenges.

We also won despite the setback of appearing to have a stonewall penalty rejected after just four minutes.

Megginson looked to have been tripped as he prepared to shoot from eight yards, after latching on to a knock-on from Rory McAllister.

There seemed to be no reason for the striker to go down but, to the obvious fury of skipper Megginson,  referee David Dickinson instead opted to caution him for simulation.

That seemed to fire us up and we totally dominated proceedings from then on.

Connor Scully created panic with a well flighted corner from the left that Kyle McClelland almost nodded into his own net, with the ball dropping just behind the crossbar.

Smith was then fouled 25-yards out but Strachan’s effort from the free-kick went wide of Falkirk keeper Robbie Mutch’s right post.

Falkirk’s first real chance came in the 10th minute, when Aiden Keena’s snap-shot from the edge of the area went wide of Stuart McKenzie’s right post.

The opener came a minute later – with a goal straight off the training ground.

Scully took a corner from the right and Scott Ross made a perfectly timed run to the front post to lose his marker so that he could flick the ball on.

What happened next was pure genius from MEGGINSON.

He scored with an acrobatic overhead kick from the edge of the six yard box that went in off the underside of the crossbar.

We threatened again in the 20th minute when McKenzie’s long clearance sent Blair Yule away on the right.

Keeper Mutch just managed to grab the midfielder’s cross before it reached McAllister, whose running and movement was causing all sort of problems for the Falkirk defence.

Callumn Morrison was posing a real threat on the right for Falkirk too and he sent in a dangerous cross that was heading to Sammon until Strachan nipped in to head the ball clear at the front post.

Falkirk had a great chance in the 26th minute when Blair Aston found McClelland at the back post from a corner on the right, but the big defender’s header was weak and easily gathered by McKenzie.

We swept forward immediately, with Megginson feeding the ball out to Yule on the right wing.

His cross reached McAllister and the big striker’s shot from the edge of the six yard box was deflected wide for a corner.

Scully took that and visiting defender McClelland was lucky to see his attempted headed clearance nodded off the Falkirk goal-line before it crept in.

Fraser Fyvie then took a corner from the other side that McAllister knocked on to Ross Graham and his looping header from 12-yards was held by Mutch.

Kieran Ngwenya was getting forward as often as he could and set up our next chance with a cross from the left that eventually fell into the path of Scully, but his 18-yard shot went over the crossbar.

Yule created the next opportunity with a clever ball through to Smith who showed some neat footwork to create a shooting chance, unfortunately Mutch raced out to make a brave save at the midfielder’s feet.

McAllister ended the half by making a tremendous run past three defenders down the left and was unlucky to see his cross just evade Yule as he rushed in at the back post.

Falkirk were just inches away from drawing level with just over a minute gone in the second half.

Morrison’s cross from the right reached Sammon and his looping 14-yard header went over McKenzie but rebounded to safety off the crossbar.

We made the best of that break by going two up in the 48th minute, after Smith had been fouled out on the left.

Fyvie took the free-kick and when the Falkirk defence failed to clear MEGGINSON coolly latched on to the ball and smacked it beyond the reach of Mutch from 12-yards.

Smith was desperately unlucky not to make it 3-0 in the 52nd minute.

He collected a pass from Yule and did well to create space for himself to shoot from the edge of the area.

Smith’s curling effort was going in until Mutch dived full-length to push the ball wide of the post.

McAllister was in top form and set up Yule two minutes later for a shot that Mutch beat away to safety with his legs.

Falkirk duo McClelland and Gary Miller were then both booked within a minute for fouls on Yule as the visitors tried to stop us increasing our advantage.

Fyvie took the free-kick given for the last of those fouls and his cross reached Graham, who saw his powerful 12-yard header held by Mutch.

We kept probing for more, but had already done more than enough to deserve to take all three points.

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Scully, Scott Ross, Strachan, Yule, Megginson, McAllister (Seb Ross 85), Graham, Smith (McIntosh 76), Fyvie, Ngwenya (Logan 66).

Subs: Watson, Higgins, Livingstone, Hanratty, Demus.

FALKIRK: Mutch, Durnan, Miller, Alston, Keena, Gomis, Neilson (Mercer 66), Sammon (Miller 76), Fotheringham (Leitch 66), Morrison, McClelland.

Subs: Cantley, Francis, Deveney, Laverty, Kelly.

Referee: David Dickinson

Falkirk Reaction: Paul Hartley & Mitch Megginson »