Houston Happy To Face Inverness

Photo by Jeff Holmes Falkirk boss Peter Houston is glad to be playing Inverness and not Celtic in the William Hill Scottish Cup final, but still expects a tough time against the Highlanders. Houston, whose side beat fellow Championship outfit Hibernian 1-0 in the first semi-final at Hampden Park on Saturday, watched John Hughes' men book their place in the May 30 showpiece with a dramatic 3-2 win over the Hoops which ended their treble hopes. After the match the Bairns' boss told Sky Sports: "I said yesterday at the press conference that if we had to have a better chance of winning the cup, no disrespect to Yogi (John Hughes) who has done a brilliant job up there and the Inverness players who played some great stuff there as well, we'd rather have them. "I think with Celtic going for the treble it would've been a lot more difficult. "But I'm delighted for John Hughes. He's always got a smile on his face, he's infectious, a hard worker, the fans have taken to him and the team play for him. "All these things married together make it a really difficult game, but also I think it could be a very open and very good game." Celtic were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when goalkeeper Craig Gordon was sent off for a trip on Marley Watkins, with Greg Tansey driving the spot-kick past replacement keeper Lukasz Zaluska. Inverness striker Edward Ofere's low drive in the 96th minute was cancelled out by Celtic substitute John Guidetti's free-kick but with four minutes remaining full-back David Raven grabbed the winner. But like most people at Hampden, Houston thought the Parkhead men should have been awarded a penalty just before the interval. With Celtic leading 1-0 through a Virgil van Dijk free-kick, Caley Thistle defender Josh Meekings used an arm to prevent a header from Hoops striker Leigh Griffiths going into the net. Houston said: "We're talking about decisions today, big, big decisions. "If Celtic get the penalty-kick just before half-time and it goes 2-0, I think that mountain's too high for Inverness to climb in the second half and Celtic might have gone on to win it. "And then the second half, the sending-off obviously helped, and I think it was a sending-off and it was a penalty-kick. "But give credit to Inverness, they've worked their socks off, they passed the ball well, they've stretched the pitch when Celtic went down to 10 men and in my opinion deserved the win." If, as likely, Falkirk fail to make the play-offs - they are five points behind fourth-placed Queen of the South with two games remaining - their last league game is on May 2 against Hibs. Houston said: "We'll have a problem if we don't finish in the top four but we have spoken about it. "The plan is to give them a week off if we are not in the play-offs, then we will build towards the final. "I'm not sure what we'll do in that period but I'm happy to have the problem."