Falkirk FC: Boss John McGlynn admits absence of key defender for tonight's game against Queen of the South is "major blow"

McGlynn – who will also be without attacker Ola Lawal (meniscus knee injury) and midfielder Steven Hetherington (calf injury picked up in training) – at least has centre half Liam Henderson back available again.

On Donaldson’s absence, McGlynn said: “I think Coll has been really, really good. He’s a good player and that’s why we brought him to the football club.

"It is a blow not to have him and there’s not an awful lot we can do about it.

"He managed to get his sixth booking against Airdrie and so he picks up a one-match suspension.

"But we are very, very confident that hopefully the guys that go in can do the business and with a bit of luck get a clean sheet and get a goal or two at the other end and get three points.

"We’ve got options. Liam Henderson is now back fit, Brad McKay can move across into centre back, Sean Mackie has played in the last game at centre back.

"We’ve basically got three players there for two positions so I think that’s about as much as I’m going to give away.”

The Bairns will take on a Queen’s side who will have interim manager Grant Murray in charge after previous boss Wullie Irvine departed Palmerston by mutual consent on Wednesday night after a poor run of results.

McGlynn said: “It doesn’t change a lot. All it means is that there might be a bit of unpredictability about their team.

"Grant might have a different view. Because Grant was a defender it doesn’t necessarily mean they will be more defensive but he might have different ways of doing things from Wullie who was an attacking player.

"We’ve just got to look after ourselves. We’re at home, we know we can play well at home, we’ve done so on many, many occasions.

"We want to try and cut the gap. We’ve got 24 hours before Dunfermline play (at Kelty Hearts tomorrow, 1pm kick-off), so we’ve got an opportunity to cut that gap to four and put some pressure onto Dunfermline and that’s our aim."