A SOPORIFIC first half had come and gone with barely an incident of interest. The heat was clammy and oppressive even for those spectators who were sitting in the shade, so clearly had a strength-sapping effect on the players.
It was the end of a long season and it showed. The industry and desire were there, but the spark was missing from Falkirk and Rangers alike, and it was hard to see where it might come from.
As we sauntered back to our seats for the second half, on
e of the substitutes who had been warming up during the break trotted over to the side of the pitch, took off his bib, and chucked it to a member of the back-up staff. He presented himself to the assistant referee and was ushered on to the field of play.
Twenty-eight seconds later he had won the Scottish Cup for Rangers.
He could have walked off the pitch there and then, job done, like the special teams in American football who come on for one play and then depart. Or like a hitman, called in to do a job as quickly and efficiently as possible and then get out.
He stayed on, of course, did Nacho Novo. But that was it. Rangers 1, Falkirk 0: the score stood at full-time as it had done in the 46th minute, and the little Spaniard was the man responsible.
"I had a chance and I just tried to hit the target and it came off a beauty so I'm quite happy," said Novo. "I don't even know if it was my first touch or not. But the team did well."
Rangers' lacklustre display came less than a week after they wrapped up the SPL title with a last-day win over Dundee United at Tannadice, but Novo said the team were always focussed on the Scottish Cup clash with Falkirk. "Obviously you have celebrations," he said. "But you know this is a big game here, it's a cup final. There are no excuses."
And he said there was no way Rangers were going to take their opponents lightly. "Falkirk are a good team as well, it's a team I've always really liked over the years," he added. "They have a good manager who has made them play really good football. They were quite strong in the first half but struggled a little in the second half. We won the game and I'm pleased about that."
If few people had paid much notice to Novo as he prepared to come on as a substitute for Kris Boyd, one of the exceptions was John Hughes. The Falkirk manager knew from painful experience what he was capable of, having seen Novo score twice against his team in the Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final, and almost had a presentiment that it would happen again. "I saw wee Nacho coming on," Hughes said after the match. "He's got a habit of punishing us, the wee fella. "Wonderful goal. Absolutely wonderful goal."
The goal in question arose from almost nothing, and was exactly the sort of unexpected action required to tip the balance of the match. Both teams' attempts to play a thoughtful passing game had only produced a stalemate. Something less cerebral was needed: one simple piece of adventure.
Novo provided it when he took possession from a throw-in by Sasa Papac just inside the Falkirk half. He knocked the ball a little further infield with his head, and then unleashed a dipping right-foot volley which looped over Dani Mallo and into the net from 35 yards or more.
After missing both domestic cup finals last year because of suspension, after suffering the disappointment of being on the losing side in the Uefa Cup final, Novo had seized his chance in the most dramatic way possible. Six years earlier he had been a substitute in the Dundee side which lost the final to Rangers: he could not make a difference then, but he made up for it on Saturday.
And perhaps he should have run off the pitch as soon as he scored. Off the pitch, out of the building and away from the entire area. Because, as it turned out, he was just about the last man to leave the building.
After scoring so swiftly, Novo took almost two hours after the match to produce a sample for a drugs test. By the time he had fulfilled his obligation, his team-mates were on the bus waiting for him. The briefest of stops in the mixed zone to answer a question from a TV crew – more than 28 seconds this time, but not too much more – and he was gone.
The full article contains 797 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
