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John McGlynn on 'criminal' Falkirk defending against St Mirren and need for midfielder's return John McGlynn on 'criminal' Falkirk defending against St Mirren and need for midfielder's return. Falkirk boss John McGlynn conceded that his side’s “criminal” and “naive” defending can’t continue if they want to bounce back from an opening day defeat to St Mirren. The Bairns welcomed Craig McLeish’s new-look team to Falkirk on Saturday in the Scottish Premiership looking to put a poor Premier Sports Cup group-stage campaign behind them. But it was more of the same with a sloppy, uninventive performance giving real cause for concern. Killian Phillips opened the scoring after 11 minutes when he easily got the better of Deniss Meļņiks to score at the near post. And the midfielder grabbed the killer second with three minutes to go when his effort deflected off substitute Leon McCann. Again, that goal came from slack Falkirk defending with Aodhan Doherty naively failing to halt the onrushing Roland Idowu, who eventually fed the ball across to team-mate Phillips. Falkirk showed naivety, admits boss “We made a promising start and we were in control,” McGlynn said. “But we had a warning before the St Mirren goal and then we lost a goal from our possession. “Liam Henderson tried to force a ball through a gap that isn’t there and they break on us. Our players are out of position because we were in possession and they scored. “We had so many Falkirk jerseys around the player who put the ball in the net and it was criminal defending. We were standing waiting instead of going towards and that gave St Mirren a lift. “We had some great chances and Finn Yeats had one when he hurried a shot when he didn’t need to. “For the second goal, we were naive because we should have made sure there was a foul when they were on the break. “We were naive at the two goals we lost and we didn’t have a killer instinct. We also weren’t as incisive as we wanted to be.” Falkirk did have the ball in the back of the net when substitute Ben Parkinson rolled home from close range but his effort, that would have levelled the match at 1-1 with twenty minutes remaining, was ruled out after a VAR review for handball by Latvian defender Meļņiks, who directed the ball across the penalty area. McGlynn said: “Deniss said he didn’t handle the ball. Our analyst couldn’t see the handball but the referee said it was when I asked him at the end. “It changes things if we get the goal and I felt we deserved that.” The boss continued: “But we only had two players starting who started the final game of last season. That tells you the turnaround and what we are dealing with. “We are in quite a big transition and we need to stick together. But we can’t be as naive as that. It’s disappointing and frustrating, but we will get there and when Brad Spencer comes back that will help a lot.” Midfielder Spencer was missing from Falkirk’s squad due to a two-match suspension for yellow cards accrued last season. He’ll be available again for the visit to champions Celtic on Saturday, August 29. The Bairns’ third league fixture, a home game against Hearts, has been postponed due to the Jambos’ European exploits.