Falkirk assistant boss Paul Smith on trialist’s contract chances, KRC Genk victory and injury update

Paul Smith says trialist David Ninkovic still has a chance of earning a contract after providing the assist for Leon McCann’s winning goal against KRC Genk.

The Bairns beat the Belgium outfit 1-0 at the Falkirk Stadium on Saturday afternoon with 26-year-old Serbian winger Ninkovic putting in a deep cross for left-back McCann to slam home at the back post after Ross MacIver initially missed the ball.

Last on the books with Australian side Perth Azzurri, Ninkovic has been with John McGlynn’s squad since they returned from a pre-season training camp in Portugal a couple of weeks ago.

“It was a different game for him today,” assistant manager Smith told the Falkirk Herald. “We are wanting our wingers to make things happen; get on the end of things and put good crosses in. We had to have a good shape about us too and he worked well in that. He did himself no harm today with his performance, and from the two weeks he’s been here so far. We’ll have a sit down and make a decision.”

Genk made a raft of changes during the friendly, and they had played the night before against Motherwell, but Smith was still delighted with the result and first half performance in particular against the Belgium Pro League outfit.

“It was a really good test for us, playing against quality opposition,” he continued. “I thought we put in a fantastic shift - the players on the pitch put in a lot of running. It was a friendly clearly but it felt a bit more than that with it being the 150th celebration game and it was nice to win the match.

“We managed to give minutes to the players who needed them. Ryan Strain has played one PFA friendly so it was important to get him decent minutes, Leon (McCann) was one who had not played in the previous two games but played against Airdrie and did well in Portugal.

“We knew today would be a proper good test. We had spells under the cosh but we defended so well, especially in the first half restricting to very little. Ross (MacIver) should have scored to make it 2-0 after Leon (McCann) did so well to get up the pitch for the opener. Second half, they hit the post and hit the bar a couple of times when the game was stretched. Overall it was a great run out and we got to use the full squad.”

Tom Lang update provided as summer signing returns

Meanwhile, the assistant manager provided a squad update, confirming that summer signing Jack McMillan should be back for the trip to Alloa Athletic on Tuesday night in the Premier Sports Cup.

He revealed: “Jack McMillan will be back for Tuesday hopefully if he gets through training okay. Aidan Nesbitt clearly suffered a bad injury, it is the same ankle that saw him out last season, the plan for his is to see the consultant this week coming and then we will have a better idea. Ben (Krauhaus) wasn’t risked today due to his stitches but should be fine for Tuesday.”

When asked about defender Tom Lang’s situation, Smith said: “Tom Lang is back in working with the physios. Hopefully in the next week or two, he will be back in with the sports scientists building. I can’t give a timescale on that one but he has been back running.”