Maguire brace enough for Dons

Maguire netted a dramatic injury-time winner in Aberdeen's 4-3 victory over Inverness last time out and the striker handed the Dons a 21st-minute lead in this match, diverting the ball into the net after Zander Diamond had flicked on Scott Severin's throw-in.

Falkirk equalised shortly after the restart when Derek Soutar found Scott Arfield's cross too hot to handle allowing Carl Finnigan to pounce, but with eight minutes remaining Sone Aluko did extremely well to keep the ball in play and Maguire controlled the winger's centre to score from the tightest of angles.

Falkirk showed some early promise but it was Aberdeen who took the lead when Severin's throw-in was turned into the net by a combination of Diamond and then Maguire.

Maguire was clearly relishing the chance to impress manager Jimmy Calderwood, doing his best to cause Falkirk's defenders problems.

In the 43rd minute he spun away from his markers on the edge of the 18-yard box to launch a drive at goalkeeper Robert Olejnik which the goalkeeper confidently gathered in the last real action of the opening period.

Falkirk restored parity thanks to an astonishing blunder by Soutar after 49 minutes.

It appeared a driven cross from Arfield had been comfortably cut out by the goalkeeper at his near post. But the ball squirmed from Soutar's grasp and Finnigan profited by bundling the ball into Aberdeen's net from barely a couple of yards out.

Aberdeen pushed forward in haste, yet the better opportunities continued to fall to Falkirk and Finnigan was again wasteful, this time when he made a poor connection with a shot-cum-cross from Graham Barrett.

Just how costly that miss proved to be was not apparent until the 82nd minute, when Aluko managed to keep the ball from rolling behind for a Falkirk goal-kick and Maguire took a touch before rolling the ball inside Olejnik's far post with no margin for error.