Ipswich Town loan star Finley Barbrook delighted that John McGlynn and Falkirk played waiting game

Finley Barbrook’s loan move to Falkirk was a long time coming - and the Ipswich Town midfielder is so grateful that John McGlynn stuck by his word and waited on him being able to make the move north.

The 21-year-old was set to join the Bairns well before the Scottish Premiership opener against St Mirren, but his loan move was halted as the Premier League newcomers built their squad under new boss Gary O’Neil. And that left Barbrook hoping that Falkirk wouldn’t move on to other transfer targets.

They didn’t. Barbrook joined the club a couple of days before the trip to Motherwell, and he made an instant impact on his debut, helping Falkirk bounce back from an opening day defeat with a clean sheet and a point. The midfielder didn’t look out of place across the 90 minutes, and he also impressed in the middle of the park against Celtic.

Ipswich Town midfielder loving life at Falkirk

“It can be tough at times because obviously I knew I was going to be going on loan at some point in the transfer window but I thought it was going to be a lot earlier than what it was,” Barbrook explained. “Then Ipswich said they haven’t got the squad that they want yet – this was the start of pre-season – so it’s like, ‘Can you come in and train and new manager, whatever happens, happens sort of thing’. So obviously I did that and then as the weeks go on, I’m looking at who Falkirk are signing and stuff like that, thinking, ‘Is it still on? What’s kind of happening?’.

“But the communication from Falkirk to Ipswich was always very clear, even to myself. I remember speaking to the gaffer a few times and he was like, ‘We’re happy to wait, we can still wait’. But as well, I wanted to be here as quickly as possible to integrate with the team. I didn’t want to miss the first game of the season, so there’s definitely things that come into play. But that waiting for the green light that you can go is sometimes mentally a little bit of a challenge because you don’t know when it’s going to happen. And then when it does happen, it’s like next day you’re on a flight and then it’s 100 miles an hour, then I start at Motherwell on Sunday.

“I’m very grateful to the gaffer for waiting on me and the club at Ipswich. I think as well, though, the interest from Falkirk had been there for quite a while as well. That’s definitely something you look for. You want the clubs that are there for a few months and they’re not faltering but, ‘No, we want Fin’. So that was definitely a real positive and that’s one of the reasons I definitely decided to come.”

The midfielder also revealed that he got a glowing review of the Scottish top flight from former Hibs goalkeeper Matty Macey, who Barbrook played alongside while on loan at Colchester United.

He said: “I remember having a conversation with Matt Macey at Colchester, he was at Hibs for a bit. He said that the culture’s amazing but even just people in football, people at Ipswich, the people that were advising me were like, ‘It’s a great league, you’ll enjoy it, it’ll suit you’. So there wasn’t a negative point of view on Falkirk for sure and even the whole league in general really.”

Last season, Falkirk enjoyed great success with loan players coming up from England. Kyrell Wilson has since earned a move to KRC Gent while Filip Lissah is now very much part of the first-team set-up at Swansea City. And that’s just two of the highlights. Barbrook is hoping that he can also prove himself in the Premiership under McGlynn’s stewardship.

“Yeah, definitely,” Barbrook said. “I think I said it in my first interview, that’s kind of what you look for, loan appearances last season. Quite a few of the lads have either got really good moves off the back of it or are playing for their home club now. When a club can utilise their loan players, you’ve seen it before and they’ve got the experience of building young players up and helping them on their own journey, it’s definitely a positive and it shows there’s no bias towards their own players. It’s like, ‘We want to win as many games as possible’ and obviously they did that a lot last year and hopefully we can do the same this year.”