Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley targets scalp of unbeaten Falkirk

Cove are up for the task of stopping the Bairn's 19-game unbeaten run in League One.

Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley
Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley. Image: Kami Thomson/DC Thomson.

Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley insists his side must believe they can end Falkirk’s unbeaten league campaign tonight.

The Bairns have not tasted defeat in 19 matches thanks to a run of 15 wins and four draws.

But they face a Cove side also in fine form, and Hartley insists his side will go to Falkirk Stadium tonight with confidence.

The Cove manager said: “We’re facing the league leaders, a team in tremendous form who have home advantage.

“But we have to go there with confidence knowing we’re also in good form and have been for a number of months.

“Falkirk are on an unbelievable run and to reach this point without losing is very good, but from the turnaround we’ve had, we have put a great run of our own together.

“We’re in there with one defeat in 14 games, which is a really good run of games.”

Cove came so close to beating the Bairns last time out

Falkirk’s unbeaten would have been stopped months ago had Jordan Allan not netted an equaliser for the Bairns in the sixth minute of stoppage time at Balmoral Stadium when they last faced Cove on August 12. 

Hartley said: “It was a good game at our place. We didn’t have our squad together at that point, but we showed we can perform on our day.

“We’ve done that against the top two this season already. We conceded the equaliser with the last kick of the ball, which was hard to take.

“We have to make sure our discipline is right and that we’re fully concentrated.”

“Clearly we have to defend better than we did on Saturday’

The Cove manager is also looking for an improvement following Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Kelty Hearts.

Hartley was frustrated at seeing his side let a two-goal lead slip and insists there can be no repeat against the Bairns.

He said: “They’ve got good players in the attacking areas and we have to defend better than we did on Saturday, that’s for sure, while making sure we’re an attacking threat ourselves.

“It was a tale of two halves for us. We had a really good first half and even in the second half we had really good chances, but we lost really poor goals.

“We spoke at half-time about making sure we start the second half well, but we gifted a goal a couple of minutes into it.

“It was sloppy goals from us and really disappointing considering our first half play and goals. We switched off.

“Falkirk haven’t tasted defeat, so we have to go there knowing we need to perform at a certain level if we are to get a result.”

Cove on course for play-offs

With an eight-point lead on second-placed Hamilton and a 16-point advantage on his third-placed side, Hartley knows Falkirk are firmly in the driving seat at the top of League One.

But the Cove manager believes his club is firmly on track to secure a play-off berth after building momentum in the last three months.

He said: “If it was the start of the season and we were talking about where we’d want to finish, then in the top four would be the answer as that would give us an opportunity of promotion.

“We’re on course to do that.”

Conversation