Flakirk striker Rory Loy rubbed salt in Dundee’s wounds by suggesting he had been well below par on Saturday despite netting two goals in their victory over the Dark Blues.
The one-time St Johnstone trialist’s brace contributed to another dark day at the office for Dundee in what has been a difficult season thus far, and leaves John Brown’s side eight points adrift of league leaders Hamilton after just six league games.
Loy, however, had little sympathy for his beaten opponents after firing the Bairns above them in the Championship standings.
He said: “I didn’t think it was my best performance but as a striker you look to score goals, so maybe it was one of my best performances.
“The last few weeks I felt my all round game has been very good and my hold-up play has been good but I’ve drawn a blank. Today my touch was loose, my hold-up play wasn’t great and I’ve scored twice, so I’ll take that every day of the week.
“I always work as hard as I can and I do believe that you will reap the rewards from hard work. Even when you are not playing so well, especially in this league, you will get chances.
“It’s easy to get into the routine of conceding goals and blaming other people, an ‘It’s not my fault’ attitude, but once we got the first goal, I thought we looked reasonably comfortable.”
The result was a massive blow for the Dark Blues although Dundee fans seeking answers to what’s going wrong for the Dens Park side will have to wait after no one from the club opted to speak to the waiting press pack after the final whistle.
Boss Brown opted to go for a revised formation with Carlo Monti and Steven Doris preferred in the absence of Peter MacDonald and Craig Beattie, both of whom were on the bench.
Kyle Benedictus and Kevin McBride were also omitted from the starting line-up who played against Hamilton a week previously, with Nicky Riley and Ryan Conroy handed starts as part of a diamond set-up in midfield.
The visitors really should have taken the lead in the sixth minute when Carlo Monti laid off Steven Doris 12 yards out, only for the former Arbroath striker to shoot meekly at Michael McGovern.
It was a promising start from Dundee and Jim McAlister was next to go close two minutes later when he stabbed the ball wide following a good one-two with Doris. But it was to be the home side who grabbed the advantage after 12 minutes.
Stephen Kingsley was given too much space down the left hand side and his low cross across the face of goal was converted well by the lurking Loy at the back post.
The visitors were unfortunate not to level up in 25 minutes when Riley’s cross found the onrushing Conroy inside the box but the latter’s first time effort cracked off the foot of McGovern’s left-hand post.
After Conroy fizzed a shot over from distance on the half hour, there was drama at the other end five minutes later when Jay Fulton’s low cross across goal was almost turned into his own net by Iain Davidson as he cleared.
The game was ebbing and flowing nicely at this stage, despite referee Willie Collum’s stop-start performance, and Gavin Rae and Riley both fired shots off target in the remainder of the first period as Dundee sought to get back into it.
With the visitors in need of something different up front, Monti was withdrawn at half-time for Peter MacDonald but Dundee needed some last-ditch defending from Gary Irvine to prevent a Falkirk player getting on the end of a Fulton cross five minutes into the second half.
There was a sense that Dundee could perhaps do something if they could keep it at 1-0 and steady the ship, but some poor defending at the back ensured Falkirk were able to double their advantage in 55 minutes.
After Philip Roberts’ well-hit cross from the right struck Willie Dyer, the ball trundled across goal to Fulton, who took full advantage of keeper Kyle Letheren’s hesitancy to score at the back post.
Dundee were rocked by that, and the outcome was effectively put beyond all doubt nine minutes later as Falkirk stretched their lead.
A neat reverse pass from Blair Alston sent Fulton clear down the right and his ball across goal was fired home by Loy to make it 3-0.
Dundee kept plugging away and Conroy stung the palms of McGovern in the 71st minute after a good passing move from the visitors, and it was a similar move that saw Dundee’s deficit reduced in 74 minutes.
Conroy picked the ball up in a similar area and his shot goalwards was deflected beyond McGovern by sub David McCracken to make it 3-1.
That gave Dundee some renewed hope and, after Martin Boyle was brought down by Kieran Duffie in a challenge that saw the Falkirk defender booked, MacDonald stepped up to send the free-kick just off target from the edge of the area.
The rally proved to be too little too late and the lack of any Dundee representatives in the post-match press conference said it all. Falkirk boss Gary Holt was understandably happy to talk.
“I said to them to go out and play football and we spoke during the week about how we did not try to stamp our style on the game against Cowdenbeath,” he said.
“So we decided we were just going to play football simple as that. I said to them: ‘Go out and entertain, and enjoy the game’, because if you play with a smile on your face it makes the game easier.
“To get 3-0 ahead in the game was great and I thought it was thoroughly deserved up to that point.”
Holt was also delighted to see Loy grab a couple of goals, but bizarrely branded the man of the match “absolutely hopeless”.
“You know strikers as well as I do they can have a bad game and come off scoring two goals so nine times out of 10 you are happy,” he explained.
“He said that to me in there, he said: ‘I was absolutely garbage gaffer, I scored two goals this week whereas last week I was excellent and got none’. That’s what happens but his effort and energy was exemplary.”