Coming off second best yet again to joint bottom of the table opposition in consecutive weeks Falkirk suffered another narrow defeat at the hands of a much improved Howe of Fife side in an intriguing,closely contested match, which saw three penalty tries being awarded at home last Saturday afternoon. With both sides striving to get the upper hand over one another the first quarter of the encounter almost remained scoreless,that is until the 17th minute when Falkirk's forwards were pressurising on the Fifer's five metre line,with the Referee seeing fit to yellow card their Hooker Connor Crawford,and from the resultant scrum the man with the whistle was in no doubt whatsoever in awarding a penalty try to Falkirk for the visitors collapsing the scrum,with Liam Brims slotting over the easy conversion. However H.o.F. retaliated with a vengeance bang on the half-hour mark when they threatened the Sunnysiders' try-line,and yet again without hesitation the Referee yellow carded Falkirk's Number 8 Jake Eaglesham for a high tackle on his opposite Graeme Steedman and awarded the Fifers a penalty try,which their Stand-Off Dom Martin duly converted for a half-time score of Falkirk 7 Howe of Fife 7. As in the opening exchanges of the first half virtual stalemate prevailed for almost the whole of the third quarter of play until Left-Winger Kyle Rowe broke the deadlock with a well taken try from inside the visitors'22 metre line,which Brims duly converted. Alas Falkirk's lead lasted only three minutes as they,in turn found themselves pinned on their five metre line and Right-Winger Ben Mitchell charged down an attempted clearance kick and gleefully dived over for the touchdown. Very shortly afterwards Brims converted a penalty for Falkirk but in another surge from the Fifers,just four minutes later,their forwards paved the way for Inside-Centre Stewart Lathangie to squeeze his way through a gap from a five-metre ruck for his side's third try. With the Match finely balanced at 21-17 in the visitors' favour Falkirk fought tooth and nail to close that gap but a mid-field break from the Fifer,s speedy Hooker Connor Crawford saw him eat up the ground right up to the home side's five metre line,and in the desperate last ditch defending the man in the middle spotted a Falkirk infringement and awarded H.o.F. their second penalty try of the match right at the end of regulation time,with Dom Martin converting all three second half tries. To their credit Falkirk never stopped trying and Liam Brims' determination shone through when he forced his way through for an 84th minute try,which he quickly converted himself. Falkirk Team 1.Lewis Skinner 2.Andrew Gillespie 3.Keith Slade 4.Craig Hamilton 5.David Stoddart 6.Stewart McCulloch 7.Angus Inwood 8.Jake Eaglesham 9.Harry Russell[Capt.] 10.Liam Brims 11.Kyle Rowe 12.Andrew Hamilton 13.Angus Rennie 14.Jacob Adamson 15.Martin Hall Subs.16.Stuart Govan 17.John McKenna 18.Andrew McNab 19.Craig Robertson 20.Connor Faulds. This Week in their last League matcn before the Festive Season Falkirk travel to face Hamilton.Kick-Off is at 2.00 p.m.