Steven Naismith doing 'great job' with Hearts says ex gaffer McGlynn ahead of Falkirk cup tie

Falkirk boss John McGlynn is looking forward to facing his old club in the Premier Sports Cup this weekend (Pic: SNS)Falkirk boss John McGlynn is looking forward to facing his old club in the Premier Sports Cup this weekend (Pic: SNS)
Falkirk boss John McGlynn is looking forward to facing his old club in the Premier Sports Cup this weekend (Pic: SNS) | SNS Group
The former Tynecastle gaffer is looking forward to facing the club he had such a long association with.

Falkirk boss John McGlynn says he is looking forward to facing Hearts in the Scottish Cup this weekend as the Bairns boss comes up against the club where he worked for over a decade as a coach and manager.

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The 62-year old, who lifted the League One title last season, was at Tynecastle between 1996 and 2005 and twice served as interim manager in that time before returning to the top job in 2012. Since then he has won league titles with both Raith Rovers and his current club who will host the Jambos at the Falkirk Stadium on Saturday.

He said: "When you've been at a club it's nice to play them and it's nice to play them here (at home) which will maybe give us a little bit more of an advantage. It's astro-turf, the pitch is a little bit bigger than Tynecastle and we're used to playing on it and I think these things stack up in our favour. 

"I was there for quite some time and for a fairly successful period so I'm really looking forward to the game. We respect Hearts enormously, they're an amazing football club with great fans, great individual players and a good management team. They finished third last season at a cantor and by a country mile. They've made an awful lot of signings, you'd like to think that they think they're improving the team by doing that so it is a tough task but it's one we hope we can put our best foot forward in and cause an upset."

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McGlynn also said he believes current head coach Steven Naismith is doing a good job as Hearts boss. He praised the coaching staff and believes with the current crop of players there is no reason they can’t improve on last season’s success.

"He (Naismith) is doing really well,” said McGlynn. “Taking Hearts into third place. He's obviously done a good job, Hearts fans traditionally will say third in the league and a cup run and maybe this year they could go one better, who knows.

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“They're a good side and have good individuals and it's a well run football club as everyone knows. The fans are ploughing in millions of pounds and they have good benefactors who are putting a lot of money in and I think the club is in a good place. We'll need to be at our best.”

The Musselburgh native worked with some of the very best players in Hearts’ history during his time in Gorgie but doesn’t think it would be fair to compare the current crop of stars to the ones he had first hand experience with.

"It's hard to compare teams. The Romanov team was an amazing team and managed to split the Old Firm. There were Champions League winners and European Championship winners in that team, it was an amazing team. Rudi Skacel, Roman Bednar, Jankauskas, Takis Fyssas and you can go on and on. It's difficult to compare like for like so to speak." 

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McGlynn isn’t the only person at Falkirk with ties to Hearts but unfortunately for Jambos youth academy graduate Callumn Morrison he will be forced to watch Saturday’s match from the sidelines. The winger has been the biggest attacking threat for the Bairns in recent years and was top scorer in League One last season.

However, the two yellow cards he picked up in the group stage mean he will serve a one game suspension. McGlynn says the 25-year old is ‘gutted’ to be missing out and believes the competition’s rules to be harsh.

"He is absolutely gutted. He's had a little thing going on with his knee unfortunately as well so maybe it's good timing, he's had an injection which will hopefully clear it up. He's extremely disappointed, we go into the League Cup and the European teams, ie Hearts, don't come in till now and we've played four games and you can rack up booking fairly easily in the modern game.

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“Callumn has picked up two, which is unusual as he's not one of our players that tends to pick up yellow cards, so it is a blow for Callumn not being able to play in this game. In the Scottish Cup you are allowed three bookings before the suspension starts and I'd be trying to advocate for that rather than just two booking and a suspension. Maybe that's something that can be looked at." 

The Premier Sports Cup Last 16 tie between Falkirk and Hearts will kick off on Saturday, August 17, at 3pm. Hearts have sold out their allocation of away tickets so a bumper crowd is expected inside The Falkirk Stadium.

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