Falkirk attacker on 'gutting' Partick Thistle loss and need for one final Scottish Championship win

John McGlynn’s side lost 2-1 last Friday night after Terry Ablade’s 98th-minute winner - and the failure to win for the third match on the spin sees the Scottish Championship title race somehow go down to the final night.

And that’s despite Falkirk holding an 11-point lead at the top just over a month ago. Second-placed Livingston are now level on points going into Friday’s fixture card. A superior goal difference means that it is still very much the Bairns title to lose - and Oliver knows that it is win or bust against Hamilton Accies.

Falkirk squad need to stay together, says Gary Oliver ahead of final Scottish Championship outing

“We have been one win away from winning the league for a number of weeks now,” he said, fronting up at Firhill to the press after coming on as a second-half substitute. “It is okay to keep on saying that but we need to actually do it. That is the most important part. We need to enjoy it but there is still a lot of hard work to be done.

“We’ve got ourselves into this position by playing so well throughout the season. Now we need to get that final three points. We’ve had a really positive campaign. The last few weeks have been really difficult but the hardest part of football is getting something over the line. We really need to stay together, rally round each other and make sure we get this over the line.

“It is hard after a defeat. You are down. It is the lowest you can be when you are so close to winning a league but the late goals kills us. But we now have a massive game next week at home where we can put things right. You can’t let it linger over you too much. We are lucky to have another chance to put things right.”

Gary Oliver: Late goals are ‘killing’ Falkirk in bid to secure Scottish Premiership promotion

On Thistle loss, the 29-year-old added: “It was gutting. We started the game pretty well. They get a man sent off and we manage to score the equaliser pretty fast after that. We were looking good, 11 v 10, but the late goal puts you on a downer. But we need to keep our heads high. We have a big game ahead of us now and we can’t get too down.

“We aren’t playing badly. We played well in the first half and created a number of chances. We should have put the game to bed early. But that is the thing about football, if you don’t put away your chances then you get punished at the other end and that is exactly what happened. We’ve lost six late goals in the past eight 90 minutes. It is so hard to take. Losing late goals when you are so close to winning the league really does kill you. We have to get it out of our system.