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Falkirk’s hopes of gaining automatic promotion out of League One were dealt a major blow on Tuesday night as they lost out 2-0 to table-toppers Dunfermline Athletic.

John McGlynn’s men travelled across the Forth on the back of three straight wins, and an unbeaten league run of 11 matches, but they couldn’t dent the five-point gap at the summit of third tier table.

Second-half goals from Rhys Breen and Matthew Todd sealed a deserved three points from James McPake’s side – sending them eight points clear.

Falkirk boss McGlynn admitted his side ‘didn’t deserve anything’ from the match.

Dunfermline celebrate scoring their second goal through Matthew Todd

"I thought we were the better side in the first half, even if they did hit the post at the end,” he said. “We controlled the first half without creating a hell of a lot. I thought we were on top.

"However, we've not started the second half well, we gave them the initiative and once their tails are up, they pushed for a second goal, which they got. And then it was quite difficult after that.

"On our second-half performance, we've not done enough to take anything from the game and we've just got to accept that Dunfermline deserved to win on the night over the 90 minutes.

"I've got to be disappointed that we didn't get much of a reaction. But our guys have done a hell of a lot, I'm not going to throw them under a bus. We'd taken 24 points out of 24 and now it's 24 out of 27. For us, we move on, we've got a Scottish Cup quarter-final coming up. We're not throwing away our season based on this tonight.

Gary Oliver's early header from a Callumn Morrison cross forced Deniz Mehmet into a save (Pics by Michael Gillen)

"We know we have to dust ourselves down for Monday night. Every game since the turn of the year has been a big one. On merit, we've got ourselves to a Scottish Cup quarter-final. Our season has got a long way to go and we want to continue that.

"We're not going to crucify ourselves based on tonight. We're disappointed, but we've got a long way to go."

Teams

Dunfermline Athletic: Deniz Mehmet, Josh Edwards, Kyle Benedictus, Chris Hamilton, Kyle MacDonald, Joseph Chalmers, Craig Wighton, Chris Mochrie, Rhys Breen, Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Matthew Todd.

Falkirk manager John McGlynn on the touchline

Subs: Max Little, Kevin O’Hara, Nikolay Todorov, Lewis McCann, Ewan Etoo, Paul Allan, Miller Fenton, Paul McGowan, Robbie Mahon.

Falkirk: Brian Kinnear, Blaine Rowe, Coll Donaldson, Sean Mackie, Leon McCann, Stephen McGinn, Max Kucheriavyi, Aidan Nesbitt, Kai Kennedy, Gary Oliver, Callumn Morrison.

Subs: PJ Morrison, Ryan Williamson, Liam Henderson, Jordan Allan, Craig McGuffie, Finn Yeats, Matthew Wright, Rumarn Burrell, Brad McKay.

Referee: Euan Anderson.

Attendance: 9530.

Dunfermline 2-0 Falkirk: Second-half goals send Pars eight points clear at the top

Teams