Premiership boss names the Hibs weakness he pounced on in comeback as ex Hearts manager relishes Gorgie return

Falkirk boss John McGlynn says he told his players to prey on a Hibs weakness - as he looks ahead to a Hearts return.

The ex-Jambos boss has guided the Bairns back to the Premiership from League One and watched his side come back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with David Gray’s men on Tuesday night. Martin Boyle and Jamie McGrath struck for Hibs before Ross MacIver and Liam Henderson netted either side of half-time to restore parity.

Next up for McGlynn and co is Hearts at Tynecastle, who he managed between 2012-2013 alongside coaching stints earlier in his post-playing career. For the seventh time this season, Hibs conceded a goal after minute 40 in the first half, something McGlynn was keen to tell his players about. He believes Gray will be hard at work to eradicate that concern.

John McGlynn on Falkirk vs Hibs

The Falkirk boss told Sportsound: “It's huge (goal before half-time). It's the difference of us getting a point and not really. It makes it so much easier to give confidence to the players, saying that we're very, very much in this game. Hibs can maybe panic a little bit because we've scored on 45 minutes or something, and we knew that Hibs have got a bad record of losing goals right before half-time.

“Absolutely (says that to his players). You better believe it. You've got to look at every single detail. So, yeah, we've mentioned that to the players about that. I'm sure it's something that David Gray would want to get rid of as soon as possible. But it's happened again.

“I think we go out to attack in every game. I think that's why we've got 5,700 season ticket holders because the Falkirk fans come here and they believe in what we're doing and they support the team. I thought the atmosphere here tonight was amazing from the Falkirk fans. They backed us all through the game. Great mentality for the players. 2-0 down against a team like Hib and to come back. Speaks volumes for everyone involved. The spirit of the players we've got, the camaraderie, the fighting spirit, and obviously the ability because we've scored a really good goal.

John McGlynn on return to Hearts

“The first goal to get back in, the goal before half-time is significant, it gives us a belief that we can go out to the second half and get another one. The only thing separating the teams at half-time was a penalty and yeah, it may well be. It's one of these ones, I've not seen it back, it's not an awful lot you can do about it. There's no trying to stop the ball going in, however, the guys showed enormous spirit and ability, organisation in the team.

“Getting crosses in the box, I thought we'd cause them problems with that the whole game. We had crosses in the box from the early in the game and on another night we could have went ahead, actually, early on. The Hibs come into the game and they're a good side so they're going to cause us one or two problems and they did. But we rallied. We’re finding our feet. The guys are finding their level but we're showing in every game that we're more than capable of being here. We deserve to be here and I think we'll maybe upset one or two others along the road.”

McGlynn expects a tough battle against Hearts, reflecting: “Can't wait, that’s what we're in the game for. The boys, I mentioned playing Cove Rangers, we've played Kelty Hearts, so we are now playing Heart of Midlothian and it's amazing for us to go there. Tynecastle, we know we're going into the lions den. We know they're going to be well up for it. We need to stand strong and if we can play, then we can maybe cause a problem or two.”