Falkirk manager John McGlynn on Livingston loss, Ethan Ross injury and 'punishing' Premiership

Falkirk manager John McGlynn admits the Scottish Premiership will “punish you if you are not quite right” after Saturday’s frustrating 3-1 defeat away to Livingston.

The Bairns started on top against their former second-tier foes but didn’t capitalise, and they found themselves a goal down after 18 minutes when Scott Pittman bundled home. Lewis Smith then curled home a cracking second before the break - with Falkirk guilty again of not getting back quickly enough.

In the second half, the Bairns did get a goal back through a flicked Ross MacIver header but Jeremy Bokila made sure of things for David Martindale’s side with smart finish on the angle late on.

McGlynn: Premiership will punish you

“There will be bumps in the road this season from where we have come,” McGlynn said. “We have to stick together. We look to pick up things very quickly. We know that it is a league that will punish you if you are not quite right. And the goals we lost were not quite right.”

On the performance, he added: “They get the goals. I thought up until when they scored after 18 minutes their goalkeeper had a number of good saves. He’s saved one from Ross MacIver at the back post which was exactly the type of situation we were trying to make happen, it was spot on. But their goalkeeper managed to save it. He’s then made a save from Dylan Tait. Dylan has had a header too that he maybe should score. For the opening twenty minutes or so I was happy with the performance. We got caught on the ball (for the opening goal) and didn’t recover from it. They moved the ball quickly to the other side and they had too much space. Pittman is standing six-yards out to score. We need to learn from that in terms of getting back in quicker than what we did to prevent that goal. We lost our way after that. We were untidy and gave the ball away too much. It became scrappy and we lost control. We then lost a worldie. Brad (Spencer) should probably take the yellow card on the halfway line on Adam Montgomery. They switched the play and Lewis Smith was always going to cut inside. We let him inside. Even if he does, we should still have prevented that. You find yourself 2-0 down at half time.

“We changed things at half time. We wanted to get two up top. We wanted to be more direct and that kind of worked. But we looked even more open and we had to change back. After that we took control and were in the ascendancy. Scotty (Bain) has made a great save from the penalty. We got a boost from that. We then get the goal back. We were getting a lot of joy down Calvin Miller’s side. Something could have happened from that. We have then taken upon ourselves to go forward, leaving a big gap in our defence, and we lost the third goal with a couple of minutes to go and from our point of view it killed it.”

McGlynn made two changes to the starting eleven with Scott Arfield and Brian Graham dropping out for Aidan Nesbitt and Ross MacIver. The boss highlighted the need to use his squad this season - and the need to ensure the veteran duo’s minutes are managed properly.

McGlynn reviews team selection and Ethan Ross injury

He explained: “Premiership football is a step up. We felt that we didn’t have much going in behind last weekend. The threat we have in behind is from our wingers and we maybe felt that we wanted a little more threat from the centre as well. I thought big Ross (MacIver) took his goal very well and played well. I thought he came on and did well against Dundee United. That’s competition for places, that’s how it should work, someone comes in and does well and you give them that opportunity the following week. I felt we needed some more runs from midfield and I felt that we kind of got that.”

Falkirk’s afternoon was made worse when winger Ethan Ross was forced off in the first half after going down with an ankle injury. He was helped off the pitch and McGlynn admitted that “it didn’t look too clever”.

“He hurt his ankle,” he said. “It’s the third time this season that he has hurt that ankle so it isn’t looking too clever. It is too early to say but I don’t think that he’ll need any X-ray. But I don’t have that information yet.”

The Bairns now have a break from Premiership duty as they travel to Celtic on Friday night to take on Brendan Rodgers’ holders in the Premier Sports Cup round of 16.