Falkirk ace Dylan Tait on his 'wee point to prove' against Hibs and why he's started this season on fire

Falkirk ace Dylan Tait is hoping to continue his excellent start to life in the Scottish Premiership when he goes up against former club Hibs tonight.

The Easter Road outfit, now managed by club icon David Gray, had Tait on the books for three years after signing him on a long-term deal from Raith Rovers - but the midfielder didn’t get a chance to show what he could do. After playing just 13 first-team minutes, he eventually joined the Bairns on a permanent deal last summer - reuniting him with John McGlynn and Paul Smith proper after a successful loan spell during Falkirk’s invincible Scottish League One title win.

And after winning successive league winners' medals, Tait has worked his way back to the top flight and admits that he has a “wee point to prove” against his previous employers.

Tait: I have a point to prove against Hibs

Looking back on his Easter Road spell ahead of Hibs’ visit on Tuesday, he said: "Obviously it was a bit disappointing because when I signed there I had expectations to go and do well. When I was at Hibs there was a lot of change. I had five managers in two years so I didn't really get that consistency. It's just one of these things in football,, sometimes you need to take a step back down to get going again. That's what I'm doing at the moment. Obviously, playing against your old club, there's a wee point to prove that I can play at this level and I didn't quite get that opportunity when I was there.”

In-form Tait, who already has five goals in all competitions this season, believes that playing under management duo McGlynn and Smith is key to getting the best out of him on the park. So far this term, the midfielder has been the Bairns’ star performer, earning the club’s player of the month award two times running.

"Obviously when I moved here it was my intention to try and play in the Premiership but I had to go a longer route. Now I'm here, I appreciate it a lot,” he said. It's down to the manager that's given me the opportunity to come play at this level and I just want to repay him. Obviously I worked with the manager when I was younger and I just really enjoy working with him and Smudger (Paul Smith). They get the best out of me. They let me play my football and give me a freedom in the game. Right now it's paying off. I've known them since I was 16-years-old. I just think off the pitch they are good people and I think that's half the battle. On the pitch, the gaffer and Smudger are such good coaches and you always know your job going into a game.

“It’s everything you dream of when you go into a new season - scoring five goals. That's more than I scored last season so hopefully I can just keep adding to that as the games go on. Playing in the Premiership week in week out is a dream. I've played against Premiership teams the last two or three seasons previous and we beat Hearts, beat Dundee United and done well against Celtic so I think coming up we had the belief already that we could go and compete against these teams and I think we're showing that. I think we just need to maybe do it for a full 90-minute performance. I don't think we're far away from it, clicking and getting more wins is close.”

On Tait, boss McGlynn said: "I always believed he could come back. He's a natural football player. He's got a really, really good football brain, he can hurt teams, he can score goals. He just needs to add a little bit more of the defensive side. He's got back to the football that he was producing when he was coming through as a young player at Raith Rovers. Football is all about experience, good, bad and indifferent and using it to the best that you can. He has done that and obviously stayed very, very positive, always believing that he would rise again...he stayed strong and we were delighted to get him back."