Gala Fairydean Rovers celebrating first cup win since revival in 2013

The Galashiels club went about pulling off that historic win the hard way against Linlithgow Rose on Sunday, however.

They went behind almost straight from kick-off at Rosewell’s Ferguson Park, opposition captain Connor McMullan scoring with a header from a Mark Stowe free-kick, and conceded again just ahead of the hour mark, to an Alan Docherty lob, having been reduced to ten men by a red card for goalkeeper Ruairidh Adams by that point for a foul on Stowe just ahead of half-time.

The Borderers were reluctant to admit they were as good as beaten, though, and captain Danny Galbraith got them back in the game with a 67th-minute penalty after being fouled in the area.

Ciaran Greene then added an equaliser three minutes ahead of the final whistle, heading in a Quinn Mitchell cross, to take the match straight to a penalty shootout, no extra time being played.

East of Scotland Football League premier division table-toppers Linlithgow fired four of their spot-kicks over and the West Lothian side’s goalkeeper, Lewis McMinn, saved three of Rovers’ attempts prior to substitute Ciaren Chalmers netting from the spot to win it for player-manager Martin Scott’s side by 4-3.

Scott was delighted to have made history with Rovers, describing Sunday’s win as one of the highlights of a senior football career stretching back almost 20 years and including spells at Hibernian and Livingston.

“It probably eclipses anything I’ve ever done as a player and I’ve been fortunate to have had a decent career, I’d like to think, and have earned some medals out of it, scored some big goals and played in some big games,” said the 37-yeat-old.

“As a manager, you see it from a different perspective and you see the amount of effort and time that people put in behind the scenes.”

Scott said he’d called on his team at the interval to raise their game or risk leaving Midlothian empty-handed and had got the reaction he wanted.

“At half-time, we spoke to the guys and we questioned them a wee bit – were we competing enough for a cup final? – but in the second half, without being disrespectful, it was total domination,” he said.

“I think we were the team in the ascendancy, although Linlithgow looked really threatening. They’ve got some really good players and I think they’ll go on to win their league.

“From our perspective, I’m delighted. It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever had in football.”

The East of Scotland Cup is the first silverware won by his team since their creation in their current form in 2013 by merging two previous town clubs, Gala Fairydean and Gala Rovers, reversing their split into two teams in 1907, 13 years on from their original formation.

Fairydean had won that same cup twice before, in 1961 and 1988.Sunday’s victory also saw Rovers make amends for their 3-1 defeat in 2022’s East of Scotland Qualifying Cup final, staged last May in Penicuik, by Rose, now looking set to join them in the Scottish Lowland Football League next season.