'We have two big weeks coming up' - Gala boss Stuart Johnson keen to get into promotion shake-up again after beating Stirling County

A scintillating display by the hosts - desperate to go up this term after missing out on promotion by a single point in the 2021-2022 campaign - featured nine tries and saw them recover from conceding an early score to secure a 31-5 half-time lead with five tries before adding a further 24 points after the interval.

The win puts Stuart Johnson's side third in the table with 36 points from nine games, two points behind second-placed Ayr who have played the same number of fixtures.

Gala head coach Johnson told The Southern Reporter: “It was a decent performance, a decent game of rugby.

"Fifty-five points is the most they’ve been beaten by this season which is quite pleasing.

"The five points Stirling got at the start was a bit of luck for them and the two tries they got late on were just when we were starting to make changes.”

On Saturday, Gala travel to Ayr in a crucial clash which kicks off at 1.15pm.

Johnson said: “It’s a decent start to the season but we’ve got a couple of big weeks coming up with Ayr away and then Melrose away the week after.

"If we can get through the next couple of weeks we’ll be in a decent spot going into the second half of the season.

"We were sitting top of the league until we lost to Kelso recently.

"The plan always was to push for promotion after missing out last season by a point.”