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TOM TAIWO admits Falkirk began the new campaign with their sights firmly set on winning the league – but accepts their focus is now on simply winning a game.
The Bairns, runners-up in the last two years, were one of the pre-season favourites for the Championship and the players shared that confidence in their ability to go one better this term.
A 100 per cent record in their Betfred Cup group strengthened that belief.
However, Taiwo admits the Westfield squad have been rocked by a terrible start to the league, with just a solitary point from four fixtures leaving them joint bottom of the table.
And the former Hibs, Chelsea and Carlisle United midfielder acknowledges there is a more short-term outlook to the Falkirk team as they travel to Ireland to face Sligo Rovers in Saturday evening’s Irn-Bru Cup tie.
He told @CCP_sport: “We had some really big goals and aspirations at the start of the season and when you start off as poorly as we have it’s a major disappointment.
“Those goals haven’t changed but the real goal is Sligo now.
“People always talk about taking things one game at a time, but if I’m being honest at the start of the season we were talking about winning the league.
“We wanted to win the league, we believed we could win the league, and the Betfred Cup games backed up that statement.
“Now things have faltered a little bit we’ve got to periodise those goals and look more short-term – to win a game and keep a clean sheet, and build from there.
“This is a real marker for us to set down something positive to hold on to and try to move forward.”
UPBEAT
Falkirk have been strengthened ahead of the game by the capture of Hearts defender Jordan McGhee and former Partick Thistle stopper Conrad Balatoni.
The pair will freshen up the Bairns squad for the challenges ahead but Taiwo is adamant Peter Houston’s men have what it takes to recover from their substandard start in the league.
The 27-year-old added: “There’s no problems in the squad – we’ve got a good mix of experience, youth, loud guys, quiet guys, brash guys, sensitive guys. Everyone pulls each other along.
“We’ve been a lot more upbeat this week and we’ve looked – with the coaching staff and amongst the boys – at where we went wrong last Saturday and we’ve had a good chat about things.
“We discussed where we thought we needed to improve, where we were lacking – but also the things we’ve not done too badly.
“And we’re going to marry that all together and try to produce a good performance against Sligo.
“It’s a nice distraction; somewhere we can go and express ourselves, and enjoy the game, and hopefully take some momentum and confidence into the league.”
