Falkirk

Watch highlights as Falkirk come from behind to stun Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership.

We asked for your thoughts after Falkirk's 2-1 win away to Motherwell.

Here's a taste of what you had to say:

Nathan: From one of the poorest halves of football I've seen us play in years to a spectacular away win. Some great performances from the guys in the second half and both goals taken brilliantly from Calvin Miller and Scott Arfield. Dundee next week now an even bigger game that it was before.

Phil: Poor attitude first half, second half we showed terrific commitment. Motherwell played very well in the first half and totally disappeared in the second. A game of two halves that was very entertaining.

Gary: Weathered the storm in the first half. Motherwell were really good. Second half John McGlynn changed a few things and the subs he brought on won the game. Well done John.

Katie: What away days are all about. However, we need to stop conceding first and making it hard for ourselves.

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Falkirk goalscorer Calvin Miller "didn't expect" to come away with the victory as his side came from behind to win 2-1 away to Motherwell.

The Fir Park side were scintillating in the first-half, but were punished for their wastefulness in the second half.

"If I'm being honest, I actually didn't expect it to be the result it is, because I thought Motherwell were brilliant in the first half," Miller said.

Tawanda Maswanhise put the hosts in front after 22 minutes but Miller got the equaliser 12 minutes into the second half before Scott Arfield sunk Motherwell with a second.

"That was a really, really tough game but coming away with a 2-1 win, with the football that they've been playing, is huge," the winger added.

Falkirk moved above Motherwell in the Premiership table with the victory and are joint on points with St Mirren and Rangers above them, and Miller wasn't surprised by the tenacity shown from his teammates on Saturday.

"We've seen that throughout the years from us," he added. "We'll not give up. Everyone plays a part. The subs coming on, everyone was brilliant.

"Going 1-0 down and coming away with a 2-1 win just shows you how strong we are in there.

"We go into every game as underdogs," he continued. "When we go in with that impression, I think we'll give it our all.

"Last week against Rangers, we go and we give everything. We get right after teams. It's slightly different today, we've never done that.

"Playing as an underdog will be key and vital to us. We'll surprise a few teams."

Scott Arfield smashed in a late winner for Falkirk as they came from behind against profligate Motherwell to pick up their second win of the Premiership season.

Read the full match report here.

Have your say here.

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Falkirk manager John McGlynn told BBC Scotland: "It was a rollercoaster. First half, we were totally outplayed, out-fought, out-thought. And we were lucky to survive only being 1-0 down.

"There was another goal before they did score, which was disallowed for a foul in the build-up to the goal, so we got a little bit of a warning, but unfortunately we just couldn't handle Motherwell in the first half.

"They were so good. As I say, we were very fortunate to come in 1-0 down, fair play. I thought that Motherwell were excellent and we were miles off it.

"However, thankfully there's two halves in a game of football and we certainly rose to the challenge in the second half.

"I can't fault our players for their resilience, their attitude, their team spirit to fight back and continue to do it.

"A really, really good goal, a well-worked goal. Great cross, well set-up for Ross MacIver and Calvin Miller finishing it really, really well.

"I'm delighted that Scotty Arfield goes on and gets us a winner. After that we'll go to defend. We managed to defend the box really, really well. And I'm delighted for everyone involved.

"We've got to take a lot of belief from that win. Motherwell have been doing exceptionally well. They scored two goals at Parkhead in the last game.

"And today, yeah, we all held our hands up, they were excellent in the first half. But in the second half, it was a little bit of a different ball game.

"It speaks volumes for them. So, no, we don't want to get carried away but I'm sure it's got us up a little bit. We have to build on that.

"We said after the Rangers game, we need to be more consistent. We didn't turn up the first half, but we seem to have turned up the second half. So if we can try and put some 90-minute performances together, then who knows?"

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Motherwell have Stephen Welsh, Elijah Just, Tom Sparrow and Callum Hendry back in contention with Callum Slattery set to rejoin full training on Monday. Sam Nicholson, Filip Stuparevic (both knee), Eseosa Sule, Jordan McGhee (both thigh) and Zach Robinson (Achilles) are long-term absentees.

Falkirk's Sam Hart has recovered from a bout of concussion. Aidan Nesbitt, Ethan Ross, Jamie Sneddon remain sidelined along with Coll Donaldson, who has had abdominal surgery and is expected to be out until Christmas.

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Liam Henderson admits he has questioned whether he is "good enough" to play football, but insists he "couldn't be happier" as he rides the roller coaster of the top flight with Falkirk.

The 29-year-old was manager John McGlynn's first signing for Falkirk in 2022, after stints at Cowdenbeath, Edinburgh City and Arbroath, coming through both League One and the Championship with the Bairns.

The defender has since made seven appearances in the Premiership, scoring the equaliser as Falkirk came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Hibs last month.

"My career has been a bit of a roller coaster to be at the top level and playing against these teams, with the boys you came up the league with is amazing and I couldn't be happier," the defender said ahead of Saturday's trip to Motherwell.

"You have to believe or there is no point in playing, no point training every night in cold Arbroath and Edinburgh City training games.

"You keep going. After you lose a game of football, you do question yourself and say 'am I good enough?'

"Driving up to training on Tuesday nights when you've been at your work all day. After it you do feel good, but during it you're like, 'what am I doing?'

"But I would say it pays off, to where I am now and how well the team are doing as well.

"My dad kept me going as well and I'm buzzing to be here.

"I'm grateful to be playing injury-free, touch wood. Obviously, I'm doing well enough for the gaffer to pick me and playing against these teams like Rangers and Hibs and boys that are on thousands of pounds a week and you're doing all right. You try and take the positives from that and kick on.

"I'm loving it and still learning every day."

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Falkirk defender Coll Donaldson has suffered a setback in his rehab and will be out until at least Christmas, manager John McGlynn has revealed.

The 30-year-old has been out since a 3-1 defeat to Raith Rovers in the Championship back in April but has had to undergo abdominal surgery which will see him on the sidelines for even longer.

"Coll, unfortunately, went through another operation on Monday, when he was back down in London," McGlynn said.

"It's a similar situation. So the surgeon has gone in and tidied things up.

"Abdominal, you would be as well call it. I wouldn't go into any great detail. It's a setback, just like starting again for him.

"We might get him back before Christmas. That's this kind of timescale we're looking at.

"He's always been desperate to get back. Coll is such a great character, such a great guy and he is desperate to get back.

"I'm not suggesting that players are not desperate to get back, but he's the one that would go on the pitch injured and he has done.

"It's really difficult for him coming in every day and seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and he goes to the next level and breaks down. And that's how he's been.

"So we can only hope that operation can fix that and hope we can get him back on the pitch. As I say, if it was Christmas time, I'd settle for that right now."

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• This will be the first top-flight match between Motherwell and Falkirk since the Bairns enjoyed a 1-0 win in April 2010. Indeed, Falkirk have only lost one of their last six top-flight games against the Steelmen (W3 D2).

• Motherwell are unbeaten in nine home league games against newly promoted opposition (W6 D3) since a 0-1 defeat to Dundee United in August 2020. Their last two such games have seen 13 goals, drawing 3-3 with Dundee in December 2023 and beating Dundee United 4-3 in December 2024.

• Motherwell are unbeaten in eight home league games (W4 D4), their longest run in the top-flight on Opta's records (from 1998-99).

• Although Falkirk have lost two of their three away league games this season, their only Scottish Premiership win in 2025-26 came on the road at Aberdeen in August (1-0).

• Apostolos Stamatelopoulos has scored (three) or assisted (one) all four of Motherwell's goals in their last two league games. The last player to be directly involved in two-plus goals in three successive Scottish Premiership appearances while playing for a side other than the Old Firm clubs (Celtic/Rangers) was Liam Boyce in February 2020.

Grant Heaney
Fan writer

After earning a well-deserved place in the SPFL's most recent team of the week, it's time to praise the role that unsung hero Leon McCann has played in our rise from the third tier to the top flight.

Joining Falkirk in summer 2021, our left-back is one of the few survivors in the current squad from the days when the Bairns were the basket case of Scottish football.

McCann's journey since then has been a testament to persistence, adaptability and seizing opportunities.

He played a massive part in our back-to-back promotions and has since taken to Scottish Premiership football like a duck to water, with his recent performance against Rangers the pick of the bunch to date.

What makes his rise all the more impressive is that John McGlynn often gave the impression that McCann wasn't his preferred left-back during our time in both League 1 and the Championship.

But he would still regularly force his way into the starting XI, often to the extent that he could no longer be dropped.

That has proven to be the case again during the early months of this season, as McCann consistently continues to put in his usual shift - the latest of which deserved the recognition it received.

Grant Heaney
Fan writer

Russell Martin's dismissal as Rangers head coach has understandably dominated the headlines since Sunday, but that should not detract from what was a fantastic Falkirk performance.

We comprehensively outplayed Rangers for long spells, winning both the shot count and the expected goals (xG) battle, not to mention we restricted Martin's team to a mere two efforts on target.

As such, I think I speak for most Falkirk fans when I say it felt like a missed opportunity to claim maximum points.

What made Sunday's performance all the more impressive was the fact six of our starting XI were mainstays in a side that were plying their trade in League 1 only two years ago.

Yes, Rangers are arguably at their lowest ebb since their financial implosion in 2012, but they arrived with a squad stacked with international players following a net spend of £20m across the summer and were second best for long stretches of the game.

While we go into the latest international break still searching for our first home win of the campaign, it's important to note that each of the four teams to visit the Falkirk Stadium this term all finished in the top six last season.

Only one of those four teams have managed to turn us over and that should stand us in good stead moving forward.

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Goalkeeper Scott Bain retains ambitions of a Scotland recall as he relishes a return to regular action with Falkirk following his summer move from Celtic.

The 33-year-old won the last of his three caps in 2019 but is thriving with the newly-promoted Bairns, whose 1-1 draw with Rangers on Sunday led to the dismissal of Russell Martin.

Scotland boss Steve Clarke has said the goalkeeping position is a "concern", with the three choices for this week's 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Greece and Belarus - Liam Kelly, Craig Gordon and Angus Gunn - not playing regularly or at all for their clubs this season.

"It's not my decision or I'd already be in there," Bain said.

"It's the decision for the Scotland manager and all I can do is continue to do what I'm doing here.

"I know there's another camp in another month. So he'll have a decision to make in another month, so we'll see where we are at.

"It'd be great [to be recalled]. I'm on my own little sort of focused journey at the minute where I've been playing one, two games a season for the last sort of three, maybe even four years.

"So I've been taking it sort of day by day, game by game and credit to the manager, it took me a while in pre-season to start to get my eye in and get going.

"He stuck by me and he put me in and I'm just going into games and trying to sort of repay that faith that he had in me.

"He's seen something in me that he thought I could help the team and I feel like I'm doing that."

We asked for your views on Falkirk's 1-1 draw against Rangers after a stunning second-half equaliser from Henry Cartwright which ultimately ended Russell Martin's tenure as head coach.

Here's what some of you said:

Gordon: Rangers were the poorest of the four sides to visit us so far this season. We thoroughly deserved a point even though we were not at our best.

John: I felt Falkirk outplayed Rangers for most of the game. Unfortunately lost the first goal but rallied after. The equaliser was a cracker and a deserved draw in the end. Could have won it but failed to take the chances early on.

Donna: We could have and should have won against Rangers if we had substituted earlier in the game.

Ross: Feels like two points dropped for Falkirk. If we'd been more clinical, the game would've been won in the first half as Rangers were there for the taking.

A stunning second-half equaliser from Falkirk piled more pressure on under-fire Rangers boss Russell Martin, whose side had to settle for a fifth Scottish Premiership draw in their opening seven games.

Read the match report here.

Give us your thoughts on the game here.

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Falkirk manager John McGlynn: "There was a lot to like today.

"I thought we started the game with a great intensity, pressed really, really well, exactly what we wanted to do.

"We know Rangers played on Thursday night in Austria and we knew we had to try and make a mark on the game and I thought we did that, we dominated for 30 minutes or so before we just probably ran out a little bit of steam.

"We let Rangers into the game and they got a little bit of footing and the goal that they scored, from their point of view, is a very, very good goal - it's very difficult to defend.

"1-0 down at half-time, I was gutted for the players because they put so much into that but we had the spirit to come back and I'm delighted Henry goes on and scores with an amazing strike.

"I think it's no more than we deserved over the whole 96 minutes. Maybe on another day, I think we've done enough to win the game.

"We were knocking on the door all day while Scott Bain wasn't too troubled.

"All in all, maybe we could've and maybe should've have got all three points."

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John McGlynn is urging his Falkirk side to take heart from the way fellow newly-promoted team Livingston approached their match against Rangers last weekend.

Livi ran Russell Martin's side close and were deemed unfortunate to lose 2-1 after Max Aarons scored the winner in added time.

And McGlynn believes the Bairns, who finished above David Martindale's side in the Scottish Championship last term, can cause problems for visitors Rangers on Sunday.

"Belief is huge, we have got to have belief that we can come out with a result," said the Falkirk boss.

"Livingston last week did really, really well and probably deserved something. They're in a similar position to ourselves - they've just come up and they caused Rangers problems.

"We've got to look at that and take inspiration from that and make life difficult for Rangers."

McGlynn is hoping his side bounce back after they were beaten 3-0 by Hearts at Tynecastle last weekend - their third Premiership loss of the season.

"We've been going along quite nicely," he said.

"Last week at Hearts was probably the first time we've let ourselves down so I'm looking for a response from the players, to go out and make it really difficult for Rangers and pick up some points."

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Falkirk welcome back on-loan Hearts defender Lewis Neilson after he had to sit out the defeat at Tynecastle while Kyrell Wilson is set to return. Aidan Nesbitt, Ethan Ross, Jamie Sneddon and Coll Donaldson remain sidelined.

Mohamed Diomande returns to the Rangers squad after being suspended against Sturm Graz while Kieran Dowall and Nedim Bajrami are not in the Europa League squad and are available again.

Long-term absentees Rabbi Matondo (knee) and Dujon Sterling (Achilles) are in back training but will not be involved any time soon.

Andrew Petrie
BBC Sport Scotland

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Falkirk manager John McGlynn remains "wary" of struggling Rangers as he expressed sympathy for under-pressure counterpart Russell Martin.

The second-bottom Bairns trail Rangers - who have one league win in six games - by just two points before Sunday's meeting at the Falkirk Stadium.

"You can't hide from the fact that Rangers are not in a place that they want to be, but put them down at your peril," McGlynn said.

"There's no way we'll be taking it lightly at all. I'm looking for a response to the game last week.

"It wouldn't have mattered if it was Rangers or whoever we're going to be playing tomorrow. On Sunday, we'd be looking for a response from the players. That's my main theme here."

Falkirk have impressed at times in their return to the top flight, but they were well beaten 3-0 by Hearts last weekend at Tynecastle.

"It's probably the first time we've let ourselves down," the Bairns manager said. "However, I do understand that we wouldn't have been the only one that day [to get well beaten], Hearts were in a particularly good place, they were ready for whoever on that day.

"They'd just been to Ibrox and won for the first time in 14 years, sitting proudly on top of the league. They'd had a lot of time to prepare for the game, and we had a short time to prepare, and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were good, we were a little off it."

Rangers were beaten 2-1 by Sturm Graz in the Europa League on Thursday, a sixth defeat in 16 games for boss Martin, who continues to face abuse from his own supporters.

"Of course you [feel sympathy for him], because you're a human being," McGlynn said.

"You do feel for him. There's abuse and there's going too far. I've seen with another manager [Stuart Kettlewell at Motherwell] last season, he came away from it because of that.

"Sometimes you get guys saying to you, 'I don't know how you do it'. But we love the game. It's a huge part of it. I have a lot of sympathy because sometimes it's going too far. You can't be doing that type of thing. You shouldn't be [having to get] escorted to training and such."

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• This will be Falkirk's first competitive meeting with Rangers since a 4-0 League Cup defeat in November 2020, first in the league since a 3-2 Championship win in March 2016, and first in the top flight since a 3-0 defeat in January 2010.

• Rangers have lost both of their past two league visits to Falkirk, each in the Championship in 2015-16, while they have never lost three successive trips.

• In the top flight, though, Rangers have lost just one of their past 45 games against the Bairns home and away (W38 D6), winning their latest 10 in a row since a 1-0 defeat in December 2006 under Paul Le Guen.

• Falkirk are conceding an average of 2.0 goals per game in the Premiership this season (12 in six games), the most of any side.

• Rangers are unbeaten in 29 league games against newly-promoted opponents, winning 26 (D3) since a 1-0 defeat at Livingston in September 2018.

• Rangers haven't lost any of their past 20 Scottish Premiership matches that have come the same weekend after a midweek European game (W15 D5) since going down 1-0 to Celtic in September 2023 under Michael Beale. Indeed, the Glasgow side are unbeaten in their past 49 Sunday league games immediately after a Europa League match (excluding qualifiers) on Thursday (W42 D7) since a 3-0 defeat to Celtic in February 2011 under Walter Smith.

Grant Heaney
Fan writer

Following last season's Scottish Championship triumph, I - like many other Bairns fans - probably thought that a new first-choice goalkeeper would not sit high on our summer shopping list.

However, John McGlynn had other ideas, and rightfully so.

Scott Bain was one of the few early signings we made ahead of our return to the top-flight and so far it has proved to be an inspired one.

Following a seven-year stint at Celtic - where he mainly served as third-choice goalkeeper in recent seasons - Bain has made a seamless transition back into first-team action in the top tier.

In fact, it could be argued the 33-year-old has been our standout performer this season - a view echoed by John McGlynn in the aftermath of our 3-0 defeat at Tynecastle on Saturday.

While Bain couldn't do anything about the three goals that Hearts did score, he did produce various saves to help keep the scoreline respectable, with the pick of the bunch denying Lawrence Shankland in the second half.

That was just the latest in a string of impressive stops that Bain has pulled off across our opening six league games of the season.

On top of all that, Bain has also shown he is comfortable using his feet and hands for distribution, almost acting as an outfield player for us in certain situations.

Having been capped three times for Scotland earlier in his career, Bain's revival has strengthened the case for him to earn further international recognition over the coming months, especially given the national team's lack of goalkeeping options.

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Falkirk left-back Sean Mackie has returned to the second tier to spend the season on loan with Ross County.

The 26-year-old helped the Bairns to League 1 and Championship title success in the past two seasons, making 82 appearances since joining the club in summer 2022.

County manager Tony Docherty said: "He adds experience and knowledge of the Scottish Championship, having featured heavily and successfully in Falkirk's title win last season, as well as being part of the Hibs team which won this division."