We need to make more of home advantage, says Rennie

After Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Peterhead, they sit in fifth spot stuck outside the promotion play-off spots.

Speaking to the Herald, he said in the build up to this weekend’s match against third-placed Montrose: “Training on Monday was a bit flat, but Tuesday was brilliant and so was Thursday.

“Dwelling on it doesn’t help us going forward the way we want too.

“The energy was really high and we have just about got rid of the bug that was going around the squad.

“Everyone is looking sharp and we are looking forward to the game on Saturday.

“We want to see confidence in our play because at the back we have did much better.

“For most of the time I’ve been here the attacking parts of our game wasn’t an issue and we scored lots of goals.

“We can’t trade the goals for defensive stability, we should be able to do both on the park.”

On the run of home matches, he said the players should be making the ground a ‘fortress’ and that other teams should fear coming to the Falkirk Stadium.

“Three of the next four games are at home so that is something to get energy from and to make the most of it,” he said.

“Two in a row starting with Montrose is a really good opportunity for us to get on the front foot and be aggressive in our play."Ideally you want your home stadium to be a fortress and teams find it really hard to come and play.

“They should be nervous but I don’t think that’s been done for a very long time.

“That’s an important thing to try and find again for the club a whole going forward.”

On Stewart Petrie’s side, who Falkirk haven’t managed to beat this season so far, he said: “They’ve got good players and a good squad who work hard as unit.

“They are aggressive in their play and they have a great work ethic.

“Form wise recently they haven’t actually done that well compared the earlier on the season.

“There’s five games to go in the season with Queen’s Park coming up last.

“The next four matches we need to make up four points of a gap.

“It isn’t insurmountable at all if we play well and conduct ourselves properly.

“The long and the short of it is we cant’ control what they do.”

He also hopes forwards Anton Dowds and Callumn Morrison can return to the squad after being out injured.

He added :”They are two key players who are hopefully are close to a return because we haven’t had available for a wee while now at an important time.”