Gala Fairydean Rovers fluff chance to go back to top of table away to Spartans

That was their first defeat of the current campaign, however, and, on ten points from five games, they remain within two points of table-toppers East Kilbride.

Player-manager Martin Scott’s side even have a chance to leapfrog the league leaders this weekend, other results permitting, as they’ll be their next opposition.

The Galashiels side are away to manager Kevin Rutkiewicz’s East Kilbride side this Saturday at K-Park in Calderglen Country Park, with kick-off at 3pm, and they’ll be looking to avenge their two defeats at their hands last season, 3-1 away in March and 5-2 at home at Netherdale the month before.

Spartans’ scorers past visiting goalkeeper Ryan Goodfellow at Ainslie Park were Cammy Russell at the double, Jamie Dishington and Earlston’s Blair Henderson, with Gala’s consolation effort coming via a headed own goal past home No 1 Blair Carswell eight minutes from the final whistle.

“It was key moments in the game that separated the sides,” Scott told Rover’s Facebook page afterwards.

“Credit to Spartans, they were very clinical when they got opportunities.

“I felt we started the game very well and we could have gone 2-0 up but then we conceded, a soft goal from our perspective, and it was a wee bit criminal the second goal. To try and play out again literally 45 seconds after conceding, that’s something we touched on beforehand in terms of game management. It’s something we’re going to keep trying to improve on as a group and we learned a lot today.

“We were disappointed to lose but, to a man, credit to the guys. We were down to the bare bones today in terms of players available for selection and we had a few guys coming in as trialists to help us out.

“We have to regroup and learn from this game and look forward to East Kilbride.”

Saturday’s defeat ended Rovers’ unbeaten start to the season despite having been on the road all the way due to pitch replacement works at Netherdale – drawing 2-2 with Motherwell’s Caledonian Braves, then beating Civil Service Strollers 3-1, Cowdenbeath 2-1 and Edinburgh University 3-2 – but Scott is happy with how the current campaign is going, he says.

“We picked up a couple of suspensions from the Edinburgh Uni game and a few injuries from the Civils game, so there are a few guys just about ready to come back,” he said. “We’re hopeful they’ll be back for the East Kilbride game.

“It’s been a positive start but, as I said to the guys, the moment you think you’ve arrived in football, you’re quickly chasing your tail, so, again, it was a good learning curve for us today.

“Our build-up play was brilliant, our possession-based football, in the second half especially, was brilliant, but did they ask them enough questions in the final third? I don’t think we did.

“You need to be creative and ask questions of the opposition defensively to win games of football. Just keeping the ball is not enough.”