‘Title race is on’ – John McGlynn and Derek McInnes react after Hearts 3-0 Falkirk

By Gbam Godwin On Sep 28, 2025

‘Title race is on’ – John McGlynn and Derek McInnes react after Hearts 3-0 Falkirk.

Falkirk manager John McGlynn anticipates a Premiership title fight brewing after his team’s 3-0 loss to Hearts.

Alexandros Kyziridis, Lawrence Shankland, and Craig Halkett scored to push the Edinburgh club two points clear at the top of the Premiership after Celtic drew 0-0 with Hibernian.

McGlynn was an assistant coach at Hearts during the Vladimir Romanov period, which saw the club finish second, win the Scottish Cup, and qualify for the Champions League. The 2005/06 season is particularly warmly remembered in Gorgie, since Hearts finished second and Rangers third.

Despite being devastated by his current team’s setback this afternoon, McGlynn believes the hoopla around Hearts is legitimate, even if the league campaign is just six games old.

“Yes, I guess so. “Having been a part of the Romanov thing for many years, it appears to have a similar momentum right now,” he remarked. “With a faltering, if you wish, Rangers and Celtic may not be performing that well.

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Celtic usually beat Hibs at Celtic Park, and today’s result shows a draw and points dropped. Yes, I believe there is a title race going on, though it is still early.

“It’s no dishonour to come here and lose 3-0 given the circumstances that Hearts are in. We will not be the first or last.

We must learn and recover from our mistakes. Then we go on and prepare for the Rangers game next Sunday.” McGlynn’s Hearts counterpart, Derek McInnes, was overjoyed with the result.

Kyziridis made a magnificent 25-yard shot, and Shankland also scored from distance before Halkett headed the third. “Yeah, very pleased,” McInnes responded. “Obviously, the first two goals were excellent, but I thought it was a dominant first half effort.

I think we deserved to be two goals up. I believe we missed opportunities to end the game before halftime.

We talked at halftime about attempting to get the next goal. I watched Falkirk play Hibernian the other night. They get a goal back, they never give up, and they have an incredible energy.

We did want to encourage them, so we talked about attempting to reach the next goal as quickly as possible. I thought we came out of the second half quite well as well. Halkett delivers an excellent header.

Then we took the luxury of making changes and trying to keep the people in mind to try and get some minutes on the pitch and look after one or two – like McEntee, who’s been struggling with a foot injury.

“Sometimes that disruption can affect a team, but I thought we were good. We still had good chances in the second half, albeit I thought Falkirk kept going. When you don’t put that pressure on Falkirk, and at times we never quite got the press the last 15 minutes or so, they can work their way up the pitch.

I thought we were worthy winners. I thought it was a really strong performance. I got a lot from the game that I was hoping for in terms of how we built the game.

We switched the play and passed forward. We ran forward, bodies in the box, crosses. More like a hearts performance that I was hoping for when we first came in.

“It’s a good indication for us that we can do that and hopefully improve as we go along. I thought we dealt with Falkirk obviously expecting us to come after them. Falkirk playing a lot of longer balls up to strikers.

I thought we dealt with that really strongly, man for man. I thought we were busy enough and good enough to pick up the second ball. We dealt with that immediate threat and obviously a couple of times in the second half when Calvin Miller used his pace to get in on that side.

When you put a high press on, when you get after teams, at times there is a wee bit of risk and a reward. A really top class performance from my point of view.

I thought we had some good individual performances within that and it’s good to get a win and a clean sheet.”

Hearts v Hibs Premiership fixture to come

McInnes praised Kyziridis’ confidence as he beat two opponents and fired the opening goal into the top corner.

He also discussed next week’s Edinburgh derby versus Hibernian. “It’s an unbelievable strike,” screamed the manager. “He scored once against Ross County in a closed-door contest.

I’ve been telling folks about it, and he was actually closer to his objective than that one.

This one is a little further away, and he’s also a little more central, making it a little more harder to get that angle. It had to be to defeat Scott Bain.

“I thought Scott Bain was excellent for Falkirk.” I thought he made some fantastic saves, and it had to go right in the top corner. What a fantastic moment for Kizzy. We can see that in him. The good news is that he expects to score when he enters that area.

He exudes confidence and self-belief, which is wonderful to witness from a player. I felt he was okay today.

I assumed he carried the fight for us. I felt he had them on the back foot, but his goal was amazing. “I was asked the other day if our feet were on the floor. Absolutely.

We’re six games into the season, and there’s a long way to go, but we get a little encouragement every day. Players encourage me based on what we see every day. We simply look forward to the next one.

Everybody looks forward to the next one. The fact that we start off on a positive note. The players’ performance is satisfactory.

There is a high level of confidence. Hopefully, all of this will help when the game starts next week. Nothing changes for Hearts, despite their current position at the top of the standings. “I don’t think so,” McInnes responded.

“As I previously stated, you’ll get a lot of folks expecting that someone will go in and do something.

However, the majority of individuals out there want to beat us. I’m fine with that. They want Hearts put in their proper position.