John McGlynn on Falkirk being 'renowned for scoring good goals' and giving the group an extended Christmas break

Falkirk boss John McGlynn believes his side are now “renowned for scoring good goals” after centre-back pairing Coll Donaldson and Tom Lang both netted Christmas crackers during Saturday’s 3-0 win at Annan Athletic.

That victory at Galabank on League One duty sees the Bairns move five points clear at the top of the third tier, having played a game less than second-placed Hamilton Accies, who dropped points at home to Kelty Hearts.

On the day, Donaldson fired home from 25-yards to break the deadlock just before half time, with Lang then going one better, curling home on the volley into the top corner ten minutes into the second half from Callumn Morrison’s deep cross.

Ross MacIver then rounded off the scoring for Falkirk on 67 minutes, connecting sweetly with Aidan Nesbitt’s pick-out in the area after the midfielder did well out to take advantage of a quick throw-in from Layton Bisland.

“We deserved to be further in front at half time,” McGlynn said of the match. “Our play deserved that. The goalkeeper made two excellent saves from Aidan Nesbitt and Calvin Miller. We’ve hit the bar and they’ve cleared two off the line. We conditions made it difficult but we actually played against the wind in the second half and played even better. Defensively we were sound all over the park.

“We scored two excellent goals. Tom (Lang) will never hit a better strike than that in his puff. We got a great view of it from the technical area. Both our centre-backs scored wonderful goals actually.

“We are renowned for scoring good goals and we played good football too. I was delighted for Ross MacIver too when he got his goal, Nizzy played a big part in that one, and I thought we was outstanding overall.

“It isn’t any easy place to come but we put in a very professional performance and our run keeps going. That is 20 points from this quarter so far and 23 points from the first quarter. That is good going. We can make it 23 points again.”

Falkirk now host Darren Young’s Stirling Albion this weekend after Christmas and McGlynn revealed that the squad will have some extra time off to enjoy the festive period with their families.

He said: “The players have been fantastic. I can’t give them enough credit for what they have achieved so far, but at the end of the day it is only halfway and we need to be wary of that. Everyone invovled has been a credit to the football club. The travelling support were fabulous again today – out of a 900-odd crowd, 700 of them were Falkirk fans, that is amazing.

"We’re going to come back on Wednesday. The guys have got Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off. They have earned that little bit of time to go away with their families. We’ll work them as hard as ever come Wednesday morning.”