Brad McKay: We need to stick to the plan

Looking back on a first half which saw the Diamonds go 2-0 up through strikes from Callum Fordyce and Scott McGill, the centre-back was critical of the Bairns’ performance.

“We never quite got it right in the first half,” said the 28-year-old. “Our press wasn’t how it should have been and we gave them too much time.

“It cost us in the end and it didn’t give us a chance to work on what we had focused on in training all week.

“The manager sent us out with a plan and we didn’t carry it out in the game until after the break.”

He also revealed that head coach Martin Rennie read the riot act in the changing room at the break, saying: “It can’t get much worse than that, he said to us in there, which was fair.

“We’d done nothing that we had worked on and we had given them way too much respect.”

Just a minute into the second half, the defender scored his first Bairns goal from a set-piece, powering a header in off the crossbar.

Rennie’s side played much higher up but lacked a cutting edge and missed chances to level the match.

McKay said: “We’ve had more than enough chances to win the game a couple of times over.

“I was happy to get the goal and it was a good response, but it didn’t help us take anything from the game in the end.

“It’s just so frustrating to walk away from the game with nothing.”

With Queen’s Park three points ahead of Falkirk in the League 1 table, the defender says a run needs to come sooner rather later.

“The plan was to come here and put it on them and start some sort of run,” he said.

“We have the confidence now to do it if we cut out the mistakes. These are things that can be fixed.

Looking ahead to Falkirk’s trip to East Fife on Saturday, McKay harked back to their abandoned tie last year, saying: “In that game we carried out our plan and it was working.

“We need to do that again and things will change for us because we are creating chances and the mood in the camp is better now. We’ll win if we follow the plan.”