Our race was run in the Hibs games. Killie were all over us in the home game and we were very fortunate to get away with a clean sheet and a late goal (albeit a very well worked one) past that diddy MacDonald. We were running on fumes by the second leg and Magennis was kryptonite to the centre backs we had.
The next season was an underrated Falkirk team I thought. We had some really good attacking options and strolled to second place fairly easily. We lost two horrendous goals to Dundee United in the semi final second leg which was a proper bottle job with that horror show Watson/Gasparotto centre back combo. Hamilton always get underestimated and I'm about to do it again, but I think we'd have beaten them over two legs. Sibbald was in the form of his life that season and we had a habit of scoring at least once in every game. The aforementioned centre back partnership may have ended up costing us but I'd have given us a better chance than the year before.
Typical Falkirk that we peaked in those years where the Championship was impossible to win, rather than this season for example. It was the same in the top flight when we peaked when the OF, Hearts and Aberdeen were all strong and doing well in Europe. St Johnstone and Inverness for example were a couple of years behind our cycle and benefitted for it for a decade plus when Rangers went bust and the two Edinburgh clubs were a shambles.