Calvin Miller on 'must win' Partick Thistle clash and Falkirk's worrying trend of conceding cheap goals

The Bairns lost 2-1 last Friday night against Livingston and were knocked off the second tier summit by Ayr United over the weekend after they edged out Hamilton Accies.

John McGlynn’s side are now point behind the Honest Men – but they can go two points clear with Ayr and Livi both in Scottish Cup fifth round action.

"We need to go on and win our game in hand now and get ourselves back to the top of the table,” admitted Miller after Friday’s loss.

“It is a must win for us, it is crucial in my opinion. We always want to make this place at home a fortress too and try and go unbeaten here. We play some of our best football at home.

“It is key for us to win our home matches. It is a long way to go yet. We need to pick ourselves up and just get on with it.”

On the defeat – which was Falkirk's first league defeat at home since April 2023 – Miller says the group need to quickly get rid of the bad habits they have picked up of late.

In the past five outings, the Bairns have conceded seven goals, with four of them coming from the penalty spot while the other three all came from poor defending at corner kick situations.

“It was definitely disappointing,” he added. “I actually feel like we played really well within the game, we dominated it, especially in a different shape.

“But we've still not come away with a win. We’ve conceded from four penalties and three corners recently.

“That is really something we need to get our heads around and work on and get better at.”

The winger, 27, has moved to wing back since boss McGlynn switched to a three-man defence.

And he was one of the Bairns’ better performers last Friday night – but Miller isn’t interested in playing well if it doesn’t equate to three points.

He said: “I’ve played that position at a few other clubs previously. I’m happy that I played well.

“I want to keep my personal performances right up there. But it doesn’t mean anything to me when we don’t win.

“Things haven’t gone quite as well recently for us. But these sort of things happen to every team.

“It is all about not getting too high when it’s going well. And not getting too low when things aren’t going how you want it.

“But we are working hard and the desire and effort from everyone is there. We want to win this league.”