Falkirk assistant manager Paul Smith reviews incredible Scottish Championship season
Falkirk assistant manager Paul Smith says he is looking forward to the challenge of Scottish Premiership football next term.
The 62-year-old joined back in the summer of 2022 and has led the club to back-to-back SPFL titles. And having also played for Falkirk back in the day, Smith feels honoured to have helped return the Bairns to the top flight after a 15-year absence.
"It will be a great challenge for everyone, including myself and John (McGlynn),” he said. “We’ve done well in one-off games against the Premiership teams but it is a different kettle of fish doing it over the course of a season. I think the group of players that we have will relish going to the likes of Parkhead and Ibrox.
"The invincible season was incredible but we have managed to actually top that. We now need to do that again going up a level. We built a squad that could play in the Championship when we won the League One title. We knew that we had a group of players that could cope with the demands of the division. Once we had played every team home and away you get a good gauge and I knew that we were the best team in the league.”
On getting the title over the line on the final matchday after stuttering across the finish line, Smith revealed that he was never worried about the prospect of missing out on automatic promotion. He joked: “I think I am lucky I had my heart attack in January! I don’t think I would survived if it happened over the past few weeks. We lost some silly goals late on but we were playing well.
"That was the big thing for me, if we were playing way below our level then I would have been worried but we weren’t. Guys like Coll Donaldson and Brad Spencer did a fantastic job of keeping everyone going. The character the group have shown this season, especially in that final run-in, is simply incredible. They are worthy league winners.”
The coach suffered his heart attack in the aftermath of the Bairns’ Scottish Cup exit to Raith Rovers in January. He manage to attend the following weekend’s match, which ended in Falkirk winning 2-0 at Stark’s Park.
“That moment, with the fans cheering me on when I went on the pitch after the game, will live with me forever,” Smith said. “It was emotional, that’s for sure. We have an amazing connection. The whole football department is with the fans and vice versa.”