Finn Yeats has joked that the Falkirk players are ready to handcuff John McGlynn to their stadium if that’s what it takes to keep him at the club, with their manager’s stock only rising further by the hugely creditable display that his team put on at Celtic Park over the weekend.
McGlynn refused to compromise on his attacking principles at the home of the Scottish champions, and his team led the encounter twice through Ross MacIver and then from a well-placed Yeats header before Celtic’s reinforcements finally steamrollered the tiring Championship outfit in the latter stages of the contest.
Their display though won plenty of plaudits, and they are currently on a 43-game unbeaten streak in the league. Little wonder then that McGlynn’s name is being mentioned in connection with vacancies higher up the ladder, with his former club Hearts the latest to be linked with a move for the 62-year-old.
Yeats knows that the time may finally come when Falkirk can no longer keep hold of their manager, but he is hoping that day is still some way off.
“He’s massive,” Yeats said.
“He’d just come in when I first signed for Falkirk and you could tell already he had a game plan and a two year project.
“Look at what we’ve done. We were invincible last season and still unbeaten in the league this year.
“He’s great for the confidence of the boys and a great manager for us players as he helps you out and wants you to get on the ball.
“I’m not surprised there is interest in him. Do we want to handcuff him to the stadium? I think the fans do too! He’s been so on the ball for a couple of seasons now.
“That’s up to John but I’m pretty sure he’d like to stay. We’ll find out, but hopefully we will be in the Premiership next season playing against the top boys.
“We can’t get too excited as there’s usually a drop off after games like Sunday, but we need to get back to business.”
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Yeats is sure that the eventual scoreline at Celtic Park won’t dent Falkirk confidence when they return to Championship duty, and is in fact convinced that their performance will boost their morale further as they look to make trips to the East End of Glasgow a more regular occurrence next season.
That is particularly the case for him personally, with his goal just before half time a moment he will carry with him for quite some time.
“I don’t score too many goals, to be honest,” he said.
“I think I’ve scored about once in two years.
“It was a good ball and I headed it clean, back across the goal and it trundled in. It was probably the biggest moment in my career and I’ll remember it for a good while.
“I was looking to do a knee slide! It was a good time to score, right on halftime, but they brought on their big boys and they finished us off.
“I’ve got legs – even though I came off with cramp after 65 minutes! The first half was about getting up to the box as much as possible. Overall, I was delighted with my performance.
“We are quite a confident group, and we showed that on Sunday by playing our stuff and not lying down to Celtic.
“But to go there and score two goals should give us massive belief we can go and take this league by storm.
“It’s still really early so it’s about getting back to business against Raith. The boys were saying afterwards it was such a buzz going there and you want to go twice a season.
“We can take confidence from knowing we can go there and play.”
