By Liam McLeod

Moutinho recently signed a new one-year Falkirk deal

Falkirk will go into the new campaign buoyed by a tremendous season that almost saw John Hughes' side sneak into the top-six.

The Bairns fell just short of that but along the way, the club picked up many fans of the football they played.

What must have pleased Yogi most was the age of his side who came so close to competing in the top-half 'big boys' playground.

Each season, Falkirk appear to make wholesale changes to their squad but still manage to more than hold their own.

The likes of Darren Barr and Thomas Scobbie have both cemented places in the first team.

Barr in particular impressed at the heart of a Bairns defence that only shipped more goals at home than the Old Firm.

There are other youngsters champing at the bit for a crack at the SPL.

Fringe players such as Mark Stewart, Brian Allison, Scott Arfield and Chris Mitchell will be making a big push for starting slots this term.

Of course, the youthful average age of the squad is tarnished by the appearance of a certain Trinidadian midfielder who will continue to pull strings some footballers can only dream of tugging at.

Russell Latapy continues to amaze and at the same time, mesmerise in his 40th year.

Aafjes will want to get his SPL career off to a good start

Once again, much of the creative spark will come from the player-coach.

The biggest problem the Bairns had for the latter part of the previous season was goal-scoring.

Anthony Stokes set the SPL on fire during his loan spell from Arsenal, scoring 16 goals in just a few short months.

Once he departed, Falkirk struggled for goals.

A nightmare week at the end of January saw the Bairns ousted from the top-half of the table, knocked out of the CIS Cup semi-finals and the fourth round of the Scottish Cup by lower league St Johnstone.

It took Hughes' side more than a month to recover from that slump when they defeated champions Celtic at home.

The club will have to cope in the new season without another talisman in Alan Gow who has moved to Rangers.

Also gone are Vitor Lima, Stephen O'Donnell, Karl Dodd, Mark Twaddle and Kasper Schmeichel to name a few.

This has been tempered by the signings of former Barcelona trainee midfielder Arnau Reira from Sunderland and Gerrard Aafjes who started at the Ajax youth academy.

MY SPORT: DEBATE How will Falkirk fare this season?

As far as football educations are concerned, those two could have done worse.

On their day, Falkirk are as good to watch as anyone in the SPL.

How successful a season they have depends on them finding someone to hit the back-of-the-net on a regular basis.

The answer may already lie at the club in the shape of the seemingly improved Pedro Moutinho or Carl Finnegan who was prolific in the Newcastle reserves.

After coming so close to securing a top-six finish and a cup-final place last time out, the Bairns will be aiming high this time round.