John McGlynn says much-changed Falkirk team carried out game plan against Motherwell “to a tee” after 0-0 draw in Scottish Premiership.

Delighted John McGlynn reckons his much-changed Falkirk team deserve immense credit after watching them carry out an unfamiliar game plan “to a tee” against in-form Motherwell on Wednesday.

The Bairns gained a point and another clean sheet after the 0-0 home draw with the Fir Park high-flyers, who sit third in the Scottish Premiership table and are unbeaten in eight league outings stretching back almost three months. And they managed to keep Jens Berthel Askou’s side relatively quiet on the night with a rotated starting eleven that included the likes of Finn Yeats - who impressed in the middle of park having not played a single minute of competitive football this season beforehand. The likes of attackers Alfredo Agyeman and Trey Samuel-Ogunsuyi and also earned rare starts.

McGlynn pleased with Falkirk’s tactical showing

Assessing Falkirk’s performance, McGlynn highlighted that his players navigated a “tactical battle” and got the job done against a Motherwell side that can “run riot”.

“We wanted to stop them playing and I felt that we did that,” he explained. “It was job done. We were brave bordering on stupid! We went man to man sometimes at the back. But we felt that we had to do that so they didn’t run riot. I am so proud of the players for the effort that they put in. They carried it (game plan) out to a tee. We tried to break Motherwell’s rhythm. Barring one save at the start of the second half from Scott (Bain) and another from our own player, we limited them.”

“I am more delighted with the clean sheet. It’s our third in a row and that gives you a real platform. We had to make changes tonight because the guys have got to go again against Hibs on Saturday. We had a game on Sunday there away to Rangers which is a tough one too. The application that the players put in was great and I am delighted with the 0-0. It was a tactical battle. We were playing against the Harlem Globetrotters and I think we did all right!”

McGlynn pre-planned his four subs

McGlynn made a quadruple substitution on the hour mark with Agyeman, Samuel-Ogunsuyi, Yeats and Henry Cartwright coming off for Ethan Williams, Ethan Ross, Kyrell Wilson and Calvin Miller. The boss explained that the move was a pre-planned one with the goal of trying to win the match while keeping in mind Falkirk’s busy schedule. The Bairns head to Easter Road this Saturday to take on a Hibs side who has no midweek fixture.

“We got close to the hour mark with the plan of putting on the guys who play our normal game as such,” he said. “That didn’t quite materialise afterwards but that was the plan: have the guys who started play for an hour and keep us in the game, give us a good footing in the game, and then could bring on our flair players with fresh legs to try and win the game. It didn’t materialise quite as we would have liked it to have done but we’ve managed to save some legs to go again against Hibs. We are trying to balance things out. We have 21 points now. We have 23 games to go and if you average a point a game then you’d have 44 points.”

Motherwell boss Askou meanwhile reckons that his side’s point may prove a precious one going forward. The Dane said he was “extremely happy” with how his team defended over the 90-odd minutes.

He said: “I’m extremely happy with the way we defended again. It’s massive for us as a team to produce three clean sheets. Remaining unbeaten is extremely important if we want to achieve something this season. These points, even from 0-0 draws, might prove very important in the end.”