A Saint Bairn By Donald C Stewart

Date: 13th March 2026

A Saint Bairn
By Donald C Stewart
A sketchy and humorous look at the outpourings of the great, the good and the not so good of Scottish fitba’ by Donald C Stewart. Readers are warned that if they take this seriously then therapy is available – just let us know where you find it so we can pass it on to others…
Falkirk natives have been quietly whispering for a while but now, they are openly asking, just what does it take to get a sainthood around here?
It began with some wit in the midst of Camelon, harder to find than you might imagine, asking folk in the pub, just exactly what John McGlynn has to do to gain the same status as the Sainted Martin of O’Neill.
To be fair, it has been a fascinating 2026, as we have already had the resurgent Celtic under the sainted Martin, qualification for the World Cup under Steve Clarke, and now a man who left Kirkcaldy, wandered over the way to Falkirk in Fife, has back-to-back promotions from League One, an almost guaranteed top six place in the Premiership in his first season, and now a semi-final spot at Hampden under his belt AND Falkirk is one of the two seeded teams AND avoided either of the Premiership sides in the semi-final draw!
So, just what does John McGlynn have to do to become a statue, a dame, a saint?
Competition will be fierce over who will be anointed as the Manager of the Year, whether it be from the Managers Association or from the sports writers. However, one thing is sure, John McGlynn’s status amongst the Falkirk faithful will never be challenged. They point to the things he has already done. He made Falkirk FC (like Lazarus) rise from the dead, turned cheap watery wine into champagne (from Bairns drowning their sorrows to celebrating, well everything), And supporters are now searching for a suitable body of water to allow him to walk over it…
There is no myth about how John McGlynn has taken a sleeping giant, to the point where it is sitting atop its own beanstalk.
Is he of the same stature as Ramsey, Stein, Shankly, Ferguson? It’s not just McGlynn who has achieved this season as we should hear the likes of McInnes, McGlynn and Clarke in the same breath as the hitherto named giants above for generations to come.
Of course, the sharp-eyed and eagle viewed will notice that only one of them is an old firm manager. Sure, Derek McInnes and Alex Ferguson, cut their teeth as a player in the Ibrox dressing room, but they made their marks as managers outside of both of Glasgow’s giants.
And that is to be welcomed in a country, like most in Europe, where there are dominant forces in one or two clubs keeping the rest at bay. Now we can look forward to a run-in where the usual top two after four decades ruling the roost suddenly have a cuckoo in their nest.
Just exactly what John McGlynn will have to do to be seen as the greatest manager that Falkirk ever had alongside the likes of Alex Totten and the rest remains to be seen. But one thing is sure. This is a season that has been better than most because it has become more competitive. The Championship has proven that people who can win it have sufficient momentum to go into the following season with a winning mentality that allows them to compete with the best. If Falkirk do not manage to get into Europe or the Scottish Cup Final, this season will be the remembered so fondly in the future.
I tutor a young man in Falkirk and is one of the happiest students I have this year: nothing to do with my ability to tutor, plenty to do with supporting his hometown team. He has followed them through League One, into the Championship and now he knows the value of supporting being local.
That is the power of football. And if that does not anoint a sainted bairn because of what he has brought to this one proud club that has risen again to sit atop the Fife charts as the best in the county, I don’t know what does.

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Tags: oor Donald, Scottish football