Falkirk rebuild makes another top-six finish challenging - McCall

Falkirk have a huge challenge to replicate their top six finish of last season as they rebuild after losing a host of key players, according to Ian McCall.

The Bairns were beaten 2-0 at home to St Mirren in their Premiership opener on Saturday.

Manager John McGlynn has had to contend with the loss this summer of his top five goalscorers from last season – Barney Stewart, Calvin Miller, Dylan Tait, Ben Broggio and Brian Graham.

“It’s really hard when you’re at the level Falkirk are, a big club but not one of the big, big ones,” McCall, who had spells at Falkirk as a player and manager, told BBC Sportsound.

“You’re signing a boy [Barmey Stewart] from a university team and then getting a million pounds for him. That’s not really normal, but fans will still expect you to go and find another one. You tell me five that have been found in the last 20 years like that – it’s not like that.

“I still think they’ll be absolutely fine. In terms of John McGlynn and the Scotland [manager] rumours , I didn’t think it was ridiculous and it’s maybe still out there.

“I don’t foresee them being in relegation bother, but it will be really hard to replicate what they did [last season]. They finished in the top six comfortably and at one point were in the running for fourth or fifth.

“It’s just hard at that level, unless you have serious funds, to replace the type of players that have left.”