Peterhead manager Jim McInally believes David Ferguson let personal pride override what was best for the team after getting himself sent off.
The right back was red-carded for a foul on Bairns winger Aidan Connolly on the hour mark at Balmoor after needlessly conceding a penalty which Declan McManus converted for his hat-trick in the vistors’ 3-1 win.
McInally said: “In the second half we were hanging on a wee bit and the one thing you hope you don’t do is concede a silly goal. We managed to do something worse in conceding a penalty and having a man sent off.
“I said to Fergie he would have been better off letting the guy score rather than leave us with 10 men as playing a full-time team is hard enough.
“We didn’t do enough in the game and Falkirk won well. The only thing I would say is when it went to 3-1 with 10 men the attitude was good.
“They never quit and worked really hard as I feared the worst at 3-1. I thought it could have been six at that point but they hung in there.”
Saturday’s defeat made it back-to-back losses for the Blue Toon boss following his side’s 2-1 defeat at Raith Rovers the previous weekend. With his side not in action this weekend due to the Scottish Cup, McInally hopes his players can regroup.
He said: “We were well beaten. When we got back into it at 2-1 you could see doubts creeping into them a bit as they thought it was dead and buried.
“The attitude was good but we didn’t do anything to merit something.
“Games like this are not our bread and butter. We’ve played Falkirk and Raith in consecutive weeks but now we go into games where we need to pick points up.
“It’s still frustrating when you make it as easy as we did to a certain extent. When it is self-inflicted, as the third goal was, it’s infuriating.
“Rory McAllister was limping about at that point too. He has a great attitude but he was struggling a bit which is why I moved him out left and put Aidan Smith up front to run about.”
One crumb of comfort for the Peterhead manager was the solid display from new signing Andy McCarthy who made his debut off the bench in the second half.
He said: “Andy played in the Premiership for Partick Thistle when they were in the top six and Alan Archibald thought the world of him.
“Brendan Rodgers shook his hand on the pitch and told him he would keep an eye on him after one game at Celtic Park too, but he then fell out of the team.
“Scott Brown played a lot of games for St Johnstone then found himself out of the first team and we had to build him up again. Andy’s in the same bracket but he is a good passer of the ball.”
