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Peter Houston believes he should have been given more time at Falkirk, but insists he respects the board’s decision to axe him as manager.
The experienced coach was dismissed following Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to Livingston, with the Bairns second bottom of the Championship with three points from seven games.
However, the 59-year-old thought he deserved a chance to rectify a woeful start to the campaign after leading the team to the 2015 Scottish Cup final and successive second place finishes in the league.
“I thought it would have gone on for a bit longer if I’m being perfectly honest, but the board have a decision to make and they listen to the supporters as well, which they should do.
“I’ve got pride in myself; if they look at the three years before that, finishing second twice and reaching a Scottish Cup final, and it wasn’t enough and if they didn’t see it turning or changing then they have decision to make.
“I’m not going to go in there and beg to keep my job, I’ll accept it.
“The last six weeks have been difficult. The results haven’t been good enough, I’m the first to admit that. Thirty-six months before that have been good.
“Falkirk fans want to see a winning team. They were upset on Saturday, I totally accept that and it’s my responsibility.
“We punched above our weight for the last three years and the facts are there in black and white that we finished second twice against clubs we should never have been near.”
Houston insists the fact the nearly all of the first team squad have been in touch with him since his sacking illustrates how highly he was thought of by the players.
He added: “Every single one of them, and that’s great testament to me, have been in touch – bar two young boys who probably don’t have my phone number, and they were genuine when they said they were sorry for a number of things and I believe them.
“Some of the players that I recenlty left out or dropped were the first ones on to me.
“When they were dropped they came to chap the door and one of the things they knew was that I was brutally honest.
“They were left on no uncertain terms of why they were left out.
“It tells you everything that some of these guys were the first to phone me to say they had let me down.
“But none of those players left me down, every week I got 100 per cent out of them.”
The former Dundee United manager, who worked as a scout at Celtic before taking on the reins at Falkirk in summer 2014, admits he does not plan to return to management.
Speaking to BBC Sportsound, he added: “If I’m being perfectly honest I’d like to explore other avenues within football, whether it’d be back to scouting and things like that again.
“I had said to the board that this would be my last year. I’m 60 next year and I don’t want to be managing when I’m 70 or 80. I think your health and your family’s more important.
“I’ve dedicated a lot of time to football in that sense of being a manager and taken stresses and pressures home.
“I’m saying that now, in five months’ time if I don’t have a job and somebody offers me one I’ll be right back in there. I’m leaving my options very much open.”
