Falkirk striker Ross MacIver relishing prospect of showing old club Partick Thistle how much he’s upped his game

The newly-promoted Bairns go into that match at the Falkirk Stadium, with kick-off at 3pm, on six points out of six after winning their opening two league games and only sit below early pace-setters Ayr United on goal difference.

Thistle, on the other hand, are down in eighth place on one point.

“I probably played my worst football at Partick, so they probably think ‘I hope he’s playing and we’ll do all right’ after that,” the Inverness-born 25-year-old, at Falkirk since summer 2023 after leaving Alloa Athletic, told us.

“It’s one of those games where you always want to go and score against a previous club to show how much you’ve come on in the last two years.

“I’m definitely expecting a big test against Partick. You look at their team and look at who they’ve got – their attacking front three are really good and defensively they are really solid.

“It’s one of them – it doesn’t matter who we play against, we’ll play our football.”

Having experienced top-flight football with Motherwell earlier in his career – he scored one league goal in nine appearances for the Steelmen in the 2019-20 campaign – MacIver would love to one day star for Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership.

He said: “It’s something that I’ve looked at and hopefully I would love to be part of a Falkirk team that would compete in the premier league in the next few years.

“I think it could be anyone that wins the championship this year.

“It’s been a big jump this season for us after coming up from League One.

“The championship is so tight but we are continuing to play the way we played last year, so that’s all we do and see how far it takes us.

“We’ve had a good start, Ayr have had a good start, but everyone knows in this league that you can go and win six games in a row and you can go six games without a win.

“It’s all about staying level-headed – don’t get too high after you win and don’t get too high after you get beaten.”