Over a third of the way into our first Premiership season in 15 years, and to quote John McGlynn, “I wouldn’t have dreamt this.”
Consecutive home wins against Dundee and Killie, followed by the traditional last-minute scunner in our draw with Livi, came before our first victory at Tannadice since New Year 2007. We are competing, and competing well.While reverses against Hibs and Hearts were tough, we were competitive in both games, with knife-edge VAR decisions going against us at what would have been turning points. That’s not a hard-luck story, but evidence of how far we’ve travelled and also that margins are so tight in this league.
The plaudits are lovely to hear. So many years struggling means that most Bairns will welcome the validation. But we absolutely will not get carried away or take anything for granted. Obviously, a few bad results could see us drop rapidly in such a competitive division.
The same of course is true in the other direction and while we judge this season based principally on survival, performances have granted us the right to hope, at least, for more.
This team knows each other. The squad is anchored in our Invincibles and Back-to-Back champions but has been materially improved by the exciting loanees who are getting better every week. They’ll have big futures in the game – let’s hope we’re talking about them in the same way as we did Kasper and Krul in the years to come.
The Tannadice victory of course came immediately after that magical night at Hampden, where Kenny McLean’s “McGuffie” sealed Scotland’s return to the big time.
But to make it about Falkirk – of course – seeing Scott Bain involved in the squad was heartening and a mark of how the club has grown, and of course, Scott’s excellent performances this season. Connor Allan’s flawless 180 minutes for the U21s coupled with Barney’s participation, and Academy ‘keeper Joe Hastings with the U17s all give us hope.
The Academy is now fully up-and-running, with some impressive results and performances. Do get along to see them – matches advertised on club media.
Greetings from …
The next of our Heritage Series third strips has now launched. We’re delighted to again be able to support local charities – Talbot House in Grangemouth and Strathcarron Hospice – as a result of the strip’s sales.
This season’s strip celebrates our stadium’s neighbouring town, Grangemouth, whose stag emblem which is on the top right quadrant of the town crest is featured on the new top. We hope fans appreciate the simple, versatile design that can be used for both sporting and casual wear.
And we hope this makes it obvious to all: that the thousands of Grangemouth-based Bairns, the dozens of sponsors from the Port that support the club, the many famous players who came from or live in the town, as well as the many buses that have run from there are evidence that all of Falkirk’s towns and villages are part of our club’s fabric. A nice subject for a cartoon.
Bouncing Bairnabeu
Not a week goes by when John, Paul, Stephen and the players don’t praise Falkirk fans for the backing they give the team, both in volume and numbers, home and away. You have been magnificent and it’s only right to mention that more often than not, the SPFL delegates’ reports have praised your behaviour and backing you’ve given the team. And thanks to Gate 20 for their excellent TIFO celebrating our very own Kevin McAllister before the Hearts game.
TFS is sold out most weeks, but we have again released a small number of half season tickets in time for Christmas, along with our Christmas range of goodies – available online or in the club shop.
Events to support our Academy are also now in the pipeline, with a Burns Supper taking place at the Inchyra on 24 January – tickets available here.
The Fanzone has been a real success and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ll keep improving service and comfort, but thanks everyone for your patience while we get things right.
New hospitality arrangements have also proven popular, especially the Falkirk Daft-hosted matchday offering, where former players join Ross and John in a relaxed but fun atmosphere. Ladies Day will take place on 28 February (Killie home) where, thankfully, our dynamic duo will represent Falkirk’s male population.
Continual improvement
The club and FSS brought fans up to date on how we were implementing the Bairns Survey, six months on from its results.
We hope subscribers are noticing improvements to Falkirk TV, with the new QTV World feed now working well. We did have some difficulties earlier in the season which the team has worked hard to improve. Away matches will always be more challenging, as we rely on the host club’s facilities and connectivity, which is why the service is only formally offered for home games. But our team and volunteers always do their best to deliver home and away. Our new user panel of overseas subscribers are providing real-time feedback, helping nip problems in the bud and we’re improving communication with subscribers.
Improvements to the stadium and fans’ comfort continue. Earlier work on the North Stand roof and barriers in the KM7 Stand has been successful. We have responded to fans’ concerns about steps by applying non-slip paint to all steps but do please take extra care especially during bad weather.
We know that fans are unhappy about entry and exit from the stadium, so we’re maintaining dialogue with the Council and Balfour Beatty, who are responsible for the environment outside Falkirk FC’s footprint. We have added more stewards to help those travelling by car but would ask everyone to pay close attention to the information we publish before each game, especially those travelling by foot.
And we apologise to fans in the Main Stand for the distress caused by smoking internal lights as a result of the deposits left by our feathered flying supporters (maybe a new membership category for our FSS?) As well as deploying hawks to keep the bird population down, we will replace the internal lights with LED which should not overheat in future.
Our stadium is getting older and, with that, maintenance costs increase, so we need to do all we can to keep it safe and comfortable. Please let us know immediately when standards slip.
The club is also reviewing ticketing arrangements for away games and will announce the results soon. We promised to learn from the experience and are drawing conclusions around how we communicate with our fans whether they travel independently or on supporters’ buses. The one surprise has been the unexpectedly high number of tickets unclaimed after initial ballots, so we will consider excluding from future ballots anyone who bids speculatively without collecting their tickets, or even an automatic payment debit on allocation.
We’re not at this stage considering a “loyalty” system or similar, given the lack of longer-term data and the fact that several Premiership clubs still sell tickets directly to away fans.
A growing club
Our AGM in October highlighted a year of progress on and off the pitch. Turnover jumped from £2.49m to £4.43m thanks to our B2B Champions and the Premier Sports Cup run, converting last year’s loss of £436k into a £606k net profit. The club’s net value grew from £1.176m to £4.433m as a result of the club buying the Kevin McAllister Stand then revaluing both stands under our ownership, together with the retained profit for the year.
As we mark four years since the move to fan ownership, our recovery from near-fatal losses of £1.2m in 2021/22 is little short of remarkable. That’s down to Falkirk supporters, sponsors, shareholders, staff and everyone on this journey. Record season ticket sales and strong backing from the Falkirk Supporters Society, Patrons and commercial partners have allowed investment in the team, back-room staff, stadium maintenance and the return of our Academy.
We should celebrate that success – painstakingly won under Falkirk fans’ stewardship of our club. But finances are still fragile.
Rising costs and the move back to a grass pitch will demand major spending, despite us winning concessions from the SPFL, so the club must set break-even budgets. We will have to raise a significant sum to enable the move to grass and will communicate plans further in due course. Mooted changes to SFA financial support for youth development will also add pressures if they are implemented.
Falkirk fans have contributed over £1m in our fan ownership era and your continued support remains vital. Our rivals routinely burn through their owners’ wealth, with mid-ranking and even bottom-six Premiership clubs often running up £2m+ losses, inflating wages and pricing-out competitors in the process.
Falkirk FC can’t and won’t do that so please, if you can, join FSS or donate directly via the Manager’s Fund to give us the edge we need.
We continue to seek the right investor to bring finance, expertise and innovation to the club. And we’re working hard to deliver a fourth stand that will not only house supporters once a fortnight but provide income the year round as well as facilities for fans, and economic development for our community. We’re doing the hard work behind the scenes on all of this and will let fans know about progress as soon as we can.
Merry Christmas, near or far
2025 has been a very good year. Silverware, caps, and unforgettable performances home and away.
Your club is stronger than it has been in years. Keeping it strong takes constant work. The people at this club – football management, staff, directors, fans, coaches, medical and performance, players, volunteers…everyone – are utterly committed to making this happen.
So, as we say goodbye to 2025 and approach our club’s 150th year, we wish every Bairn, everywhere, a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
