In the space of a week Falkirk have beaten defending champions Celtic and become the first team to get the better of Hearts in a Scottish Premiership match at Tynecastle in 19 months, scoring a combined seven goals in the process.

The 5-2 success in Edinburgh was their fifth successive victory and takes John McGlynn’s side up to third place.

A month ago, the concession of an added time goal to Dundee left them 11th, only a point off the bottom of the table.

“It’s striking a balance without getting carried away and not playing it down too much,” McGlynn told BBC Scotland.

“Winning five games in a row, you’ve obviously got something about you. We want it to continue because we’re enjoying this.

“But we’re only 13 games in. There’s a long way to go, so we’ve got to keep our feet on the ground and enjoy seeing our team third in the league.”

The 64-year-old earned plaudits aplenty last season for guiding Falkirk to sixth on their return to the top flight after overseeing consecutive promotions.

Liam Henderson, who scored the sublime fourth goal against Hearts, was with the Bairns in those League One days, as were Brad Spencer and Ethan Ross.

Unused substitutes Finn Yeats and Ross MacIver have been on the journey with McGlynn too, as has Leon McCann, who missed out through injury.

“We’ve got a good team spirit, a togetherness, and a will to work hard for your team-mates,” said centre-half Henderson. “We now have a ruthlessness up front as well.

“The manager is massive to us. His knowledge, his detail. He is so detailed in everything he does.

“We’re breaking records this season and creating some history. A lot of pundits and fans were saying that we weren’t the team we were last year.”

There is truth to that. While some of the old guard remain, there was a huge squad turnover in the summer.

Calvin Miller went to Hearts, Dylan Tait is now the skipper at Dundee United and Barney Stewart, who scored 10 goals between January and May, was sold to West Bromwich Albion for a club record fee.

Loan players Filip Lissah, Ben Broggio, Henry Cartwright, Kyrell Wilson, Ethan Williams and Louie Marsh said their goodbyes.

Source link

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Occasional Digest

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading