Falkirk gaffer slams gone missing mentality and 'influenced' red card after Partick Thistle defeat

Falkirk boss John McGlynn questioned his side’s mentality after another late goal capitulation handed ten-man Partick Thistle a last-gasp victory on Friday night.

The Bairns’ 2-1 defeat at Firhill was the latest stumble as the table-toppers slowly stagger towards the Scottish Championship title and Premiership promotion after a 15-year hiatus from the top flight. Second-placed Livingston will draw level with Falkirk heading into the final matchday if they beat Hamilton Accies this afternoon.

And although it is true that whatever happens the Bairns will have the advantage on the final night - it feels like any momentum or belief has been totally dismantled after a series of shockers. Not so long ago, Falkirk sat 11 points clear at the top of the table. That feels a million miles away now.

After an early opener from Brian Graham - which came from a defensive mishap with Tom Lang at fault - McGlynn’s team dominated and looked odds-on to turn the game around when Stuart Bannigan was sent off for a second yellow card. Scott Arfield showed his class with a top finish to draw Falkirk level before the break - but the second half showing was nowhere near what was required. Alfredo Agyeman was wrongly sent off late on but that was no excuse for Terry Ablade’s injury-time winner. The Bairns bottled it big time, again.

John McGlynn: Partick Thistle’s late winner ‘absolutely embarrassing’

And McGlynn didn’t hold back, calling out the matchwinner as “absolutely embarrassing” as he berated a below par second-half showing from his stuttering side.

“We’ve been putting ourselves in these sort of situations for a few weeks now - we are certainly brining it on ourselves,” he said. “I actually thought we were very good in the first half after a not so great start. The goal we lose comes from an individual error, which has crept in of late. For three quarters of the season, that hasn’t happened. We are being punished for them now.

“But I honestly thought the response to losing the goal was brilliant, we could have scored two or three in the first half easily. I was delighted with the goal we got back. Scotty’s (Arfield) goal return is phenomenal. It put us in a great position going into the second half against ten men, but we didn't do enough, it was too slow getting the ball from side to side, we never really got in behind them enough.

“Our delivery, we couldn't get anyone on the end of anything, we never really created enough, we did better in the first half than we did in the second half, and that's disappointing. Fair play to Partick, they defended really well. We didn't do well enough in both boxes, we had 11 corner kicks there and we got our head to one of them. When the ball broke we never seemed to be anywhere near it, that isn’t good enough. They didn’t really have an attempt at goal from when they first scored until the 96th minute.

“The goal at the end comes from a silly free kick. It is absolutely embarrassing. The boy knocks it in from close range. We know have a one-game shootout at home. We need to deliver a performance and result that means we can still win the league. Moments are turning games - the mentality isn’t great at the minute. We aren’t killing teams off and sucker-punches are hurting us. It is normal to be nervous with so much at stake.”

Alfredo Agyeman’s sending off wasn’t even a foul, says Falkirk boss

The boss did however have sympathy for his sent-off substitute Alfredo Agyeman. The winger was ordered off by referee Matthew MacDermid with eight minutes remaining. Robbie Crawford went down like a ton of bricks after Agyeman came through the Thistle ace - but Falkirk player looked to have cleanly won the ball and simply played a pass to his team-mate.

And McGlynn agreed with that assessment, saying: “It wasn’t even a foul. Alfie won the ball clean and there was no attempt to injure the player, he never caught the player, he took the ball. The player has actually ran made contact with Alfie. It is a poor decision by the referee. He was probably influenced part from the Thistle players, part influenced by a situation where one team is playing with ten men and the referee takes the easy option to even it up and send somebody else off. He did even up it up.”

When asked if Falkirk would appeal the red card, he added: “I would suggest so.”