Pitch-gate: John McGlynn calls Bonnyrigg surface 'a tip' as Robbie Horn hits back after Rose's shock Scottish Cup win

The Bairns headed to Midlothian on the back of a club record 26-match unbeaten run in all competitions, but that was ended by Robbie Horn’s League Two outfit, who handled the conditions expertly to dish out shock result of the fourth round with Bradley Barrett’s stoppage-time winner cancelling out Liam Henderson’s first-half equaliser after an early opener from Conor Doan.

The tie was subject to a morning pitch inspection, with the result of that deeming the surface playable, and boss McGlynn did agree that it was playable – but it didn’t stop him from letting his feelings known.

“It would be easy to make excuses about the pitch because it was terrible,” he explained. “But we knew that coming into the match. It was always going to be a tough game. Still, however, it is not until the guys are playing on it that you see how bad it actually was. It isn’t really football. The pitch is everything – it is what the game of football is played on.

“The pitch was a disgrace basically. Was it playable? Yes. But it was a tip. But that is making excuses, you have to congratulate Bonnyrigg because they managed to get the ball over the line a couple of times and get through.

“We knew we would have to adapt our game, there was no way that you could pass the ball. We are a football team and it certainly knocked us off our stride because you simply cannot play on it. It becomes a lottery basically."

On the match, which saw Falkirk for the second weekend in a row concede two soft goals from set-pieces, McGlynn urged his team to put the result behind them quickly with a return to League One action coming up next.

The Bairns are still nine points clear at the top of League One heading into the away trip to Andy Graham’s Alloa Athletic next weekend after Hamilton Accies’ clash with Stirling Albion was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

He added: “They managed to score twice from set-plays and unfortunately we are licking our wounds and are now out the cup. We created numerous shooting opportunities that we didn’t hit the target from that might have made a difference. When they scored, it was so late on that we didn’t really have a chance to get into the game.

“That’s our unbeaten run gone too but we need to now put our focus on the league again. There is plenty of motivation because there is so much to play for. That’s us lost a match for the first time in 27 including today, we need to stick together and have a good week’s training ahead of Alloa Athletic on Saturday.

“There is no problems getting the guys up for it – they know and I know what the priority is. The priority is the league. We have to bounce back.”

Meanwhile, opposition manager Robbie Horn called out Falkirk’s ‘disrespect’ heading into the tie, revealing that his team used comments made about the pitch as added motivation.

"All the talk all week about the pitch being a leveller, I found it a wee bit disrespectful, we’ve got good footballers and good players can adapt to different,” he said. “We adapted better over the 90 minutes. My opinion is that we wanted it a wee bit more (than Falkirk).

"The pitch was firm this morning when I was there and there was water on the surface. I thought the game was going to be off. We deserved to win and I hope we get a tie that rewards us for this performance. Yes, the pitch is poor but we don’t want it to be like that.

"We’ve had more success playing on astroturf over the past few seasons than we have on our own pitch. It really is the same for both teams. I think the boys picked up on the stuff that was said beforehand and it fired them right up. Stuff like that, if you are going to say it, then you keep it in-house.”