John McGlynn reckons Falkirk may have been denied onside goal but admits first half cost side in Hibs defeat

Falkirk boss John McGlynn reckons that his side may have been denied a perfectly good goal against Hibs - but conceded that the Bairns were the ‘makers of their own downfall’ during Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Easter Road.

A Martin Boyle penalty and a brilliant brace from Kieron Bowie handed David Gray’s team the three points in the capital but it could have been a different story with a solid second-half showing from the visitors counting for nothing in the end. Ethan Ross - who came in for a start over Swansea Cit loanee Kyrell Wilson - thought he has grabbed goal back for Falkirk just after the hour mark but his effort was ruled out by VAR for tight offside.

And McGlynn believes that the goal ‘looked onside’ having watched it back. Substitute Alfredo Agyeman did well to control the ball and feed through Ross, who looked to have timed his run well with the Hibs’ backline pushed all the way up to the halfway line.

Ethan Ross looked onside, reckons Falkirk boss

“When I look at my monitor, which doesn't have lines, it looks like it's onside,” McGlynn said. “Obviously, VAR is there to make sure these things are right. I think that would have given us a great lift, having played so well in the second half. It may well have made Hibs a little bit more edgy and a little bit more anxiety, which would have transmitted from the stadium. We were on top in the second half and I believe that if the goal is allowed rather than being disallowed, then 2-1 is game on. “We were the better team in the second half, full stop. We've been a team very much in the ascendancy and it's a really good goal.”

Falkirk’s first-half showing was ultimately what cost them their five-game unbeaten league run, with Hibs star Josh Mulligan proving unstoppable for the Bairns’ midfield and backline. Boyle’s opener from the spot came after a silly foul by Filip Lissah while Bowie’s excellent strike came after he was allowed space to pick out the top corner.

Assessing the performance, McGlynn admitted that his side’s first-half display didn’t match up with what was an impressive second-half against the Easter Road outfit.

McGlynn: First-half showing against Hibs cost us

He said: “That sums it up. We expected Hibs to have a go, they've lost their last two games, they're at home and they'll see us, a really promoted team, they're going to come at us. And for 33 minutes we managed to prevent them from scoring. We defended well, I mean Scott didn't really have an awful lot to do. Then we were the makers of our own downfall, we lose the ball in our own half and it leads to the penalty. The second goal is similar, again we've got possession of the ball, keep it in our own half, we turn the ball over and it's a good finish, it's in off the post. It was really difficult for Scott to do anything about it. We had a couple of shots on target ourselves, their keeper’s made a couple of saves.

“But we knew we were going to go under pressure and we just had to try and retain possession a little bit better and work our way out. Hibs were set up to win the ball back high against a possession based team. They managed to do that on a couple of occasions and punish us. The second half, as you see, we had to make changes to freshen things up a little bit. Dylan was on a booking and we didn't really want him to get a second one. who he's liable to. Alfie going on gave us an option to go in behind. It wasn't to be and we gave it a goal. You're liable to get done with the type of goal when you're pushing and pushing. Simple ball of a channel, a little bit of speed and a ball in the middle.

“We were a little bit heavy legged from Wednesday, quite a hard week for us to go to Ibrox and Motherwell, who's a team who pass the ball for fun. So you're chasing, chasing, running, running, running all the time. We tried to balance the team off as best as we could, to try and not have as much stress on us. Keeping our core players in the team, we didn't quite get that quite right. It's always going to be a different game here today.”

Falkirk dropped to seventh in the top-flight table but still sit five points clear of Dundee United below them, and McGlynn said that perspective was needed after an excellent run of form.

“They've done so much, they've done so well,” he said of his squad. “They're an amazing group of boys. We've worked with them for three and a half years now. More or less the core. We've done so well, we've got so many points on the board. We're happy with that. Coming to these places are going to be difficult for us. There's absolutely no doubt about that. I'm sure you've all looked at the stats. The stats are telling you that was near 3-0. There was only one short on target less. They had I don't know how many more passes than them. I know that managers get criticised for that. We all look at them now, don't we? Everyone looks at them, not just managers. Everyone looks at them and we'll have our opinion on that. The only stat that ever matters is the scoring. They were more clinical, maybe in the final third we'd have been better. We're not going to be too critical with the players. We're in a good position. We dust ourselves down and we've got Hearts at home next Saturday we'll get ourselves sorted out and prepared for that.”