Hearts had not lost a league game at Tynecastle since April 2025. Twenty-six matches, eighteen months, and Falkirk took it apart inside forty-five minutes. John McGlynn's side led 4-0 at the break on Saturday, finished 5-2 winners, and replaced their hosts in third place in the Scottish Premiership.
Wouter Vrancken did not try to dress it up. "I can't explain. It was just an embarrassment in the first half, simple as that, how easy it was for Falkirk to score their goals," the Hearts head coach said. "It's crazy and we said at half-time, with the run of games, you have to have some pride in these moments." The second half was better, he conceded. The first was a disgrace.
Four goals before the interval
The opener owed something to slack marking. Beau Reus saved Jacob Murrell's effort but the defending around the rebound was unfocused enough for Finley Barbrook to turn it in, his first goal for Falkirk. The second was cleaner work: captain Brad Spencer found the gaps that Hearts kept leaving and picked out Owen Eames, who finished without fuss.
Claudio Braga thought he had pulled one back with a piece of individual skill, only for referee Matthew McDermid to rule it out for handball on a second look. From there it got worse for the hosts. Murrell, the Premiership's player of the month, headed in his sixth of the season from a Deniss Melniks cross, and defender Liam Henderson added a fourth with a finish most strikers would have been pleased with.
A minute after the restart Murrell was left unmarked to make it five. Substitute Sabri Guendouz got his first goal in maroon and later won a penalty that Braga converted, but by then the night had long since been decided.
Falkirk's recovery has been startling
This is Falkirk's fifth league win in a row, the first time the club has managed that in 31 years. McGlynn, who knew his many summer signings would need time, has now watched them beat Celtic and then dismantle Hearts at one of the hardest grounds in the division to visit.
Melniks was central to it, commanding in his duels and responsible for the delivery that set up Murrell's header. And the defensive side of the improvement is just as striking: 14 goals conceded this season against 21 at the same stage last year. "Winning five games in a row, you've obviously got something about you," McGlynn said. "We want it to continue because we're enjoying this. But we're only 13 games in. There's a long way to go."
Hearts are leaking goals at a rate they cannot sustain
Last season Hearts conceded 34 goals across the whole campaign and lost the title on the final day. Twelve games into this one they have already shipped 22, more than every club except bottom side Kilmarnock. The defensive problems that showed up in midweek against Thun in the Conference League were on display again here, and Vrancken lost Malachi Fagan-Walcott to injury to make a long list longer.
The international break arrives at a useful moment. After it come three serious tests: a league trip to Dundee, Monaco at home in the Conference League, and then Celtic at Tynecastle, where Hearts will be trying to forget a 7-1 defeat.
Match facts: Hearts 2-5 Falkirk, Tynecastle Park. Falkirk: Finley Barbrook, Owen Eames, Jacob Murrell (2), Liam Henderson. Hearts: Sabri Guendouz, Claudio Braga (pen). Falkirk's fifth straight league win, their first such run in 31 years, lifting them to third. Hearts' first home league defeat in 26 matches, since April 2025.
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