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Falkirk eye advantage against Motherwell's busy schedule

· Ben Kearney · 2026-08-08 · nguồn gốc

Falkirk aim for advantage over busy Motherwell John McGlynn provides Falkirk squad update and previews Motherwell trip. John McGlynn says his Falkirk side need to take advantage of Motherwell’s early-season European exploits this Sunday afternoon. The Bairns travel to Fir Park for their second Scottish Premiership outing having lost 2-0 at home to St Mirren last Saturday on the opening weekend. Due to being involved in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers, the Steelmen played their league opener on the Sunday. Alfred Johansson’s team were also in action on Thursday evening in Finland, taking on HJK. Both of those games resulted in positive outcomes for the Motherwell, with a 2-1 win at Easter Road being followed up with a 1-1 draw in Helsinki. But McGlynn is hoping that a busy run of fixtures for the home side can give his players an edge in North Lanarkshire. The Bairns also enjoyed a brilliant record against Motherwell last season, winning twice at Fir Park. They were the only team in the division to do that, and in general go unbeaten against Jens Berthel-Askou’s group. Falkirk face tough Motherwell trip “Hats off to Motherwell, they are flying the flag for Scotland in Europe,” McGlynn said ahead of Sunday’s clash. “Well done to them for getting through the previous round comfortably, and they have now put themselves in a great situation after last night in Helsinki. “The new manager has faced a lot of injuries but he has still managed to get the results. I was at Easter Road last week and Motherwell deserved to be ahead in the first half. “Second half, you maybe felt that Hibs were going to go and win it but Motherwell managed to score a terrific second goal. And fair play to them, they are always a threat. The goal was a great counter-attacking goal. Hibs had little chance to recover. “We have a really good record against Motherwell, the best record of anyone in the league last season. And we have to try and take inspiration from that. “We also have to try and take inspiration from the fact that Motherwell have played two games since we last played. That has to be an advantage and we should be fresher. We have to make that count.” McGlynn continued: “I would imagine they were trying to find the next one (Jens) and you could say that is what happened with Alfred. Fair play to them. It’s almost seamless. I’d suggest that they maybe play forward a little bit quicker than they did previously.” Meanwhile, the boss confirmed that attacker Ethan Laidlaw and defender Scott Tanser will both be missing from Sunday’s squad. “Ethan Laidlaw went over his ankle badly in training on Wednesday,” McGlynn said. He is definitely out. Longer term, Keelan Adams is still out. “Scott Tanser hurt his groin during last weekend’s game so he is out. Aidan Nesbitt has gone for an operation. Tom Lang is still out. Brad Spencer has one more match left on his suspension.”