Scott Bain: Is Falkirk goalkeeper on course to be Scotland’s number one?

There will be a number of Dundee United players cursing Bain’s name after Saturday’s game.

Full-back Kevin Ciubotaru’s shot seemed destined for the bottom right-hand corner before Bain intervened. United debutant Lyall Cameron also watched in anguish as Bain denied him.

Another new boy, Zidane Iqbal, arrowed a shot towards the top corner only for Bain to tip it away. And the goalkeeper thwarted Neil Farrugia, too.

It was an heroic display of defiance that very nearly earned his side a first league win of the season, but for Michael Forbes stoppage-time header.

After a mistake at Celtic Park last weekend, Bain was back to his best.

United assistant manager Lee Sharp was also quick to praise Bain’s contribution and agree that he’s done his Scotland chances absolutely no harm whatsoever.

“Absolutely,” he said. “He had two or three really good saves in the second half.”

That was perhaps an understatement. Falkirk faced 27 shots, nine of which were on target. All of which were repelled by Bain until the late leveller.

He has now played 44 games for Falkirk, keeping 10 clean sheets in the process. He kept the ball out of the net in half of his 78 games for Celtic prior to that.

At Dundee, Bain’s stats were pretty good, too – 21 clean sheets in 124 games.

Alex McLeish gave him his Scotland debut against Mexico in June 2018, after which he played a further three times for his country. His last cap came against Ivory Coast in a pre World Cup friendly in March but he did not make the finals squad.

On his current form, he’ll have every right to hope there’s a new lease of international life coming in Pocognoli’s brave new vision for Scotland.