​Gala Fairydean Rovers get ready for new football season with 3-0 friendly win versus Newtongrange Star

​On target for player-manager Martin Scott’s hosts against their East of Scotland Football League first division opponents were trialist Lasana Drammeh on ten minutes, Sam Ostle on 42 and Nicky Reid on 78.

That win at Netherdale in Galashiels followed a 3-1 defeat at Broxburn Athletic on Tuesday last week and 1-1 draws at home to Kilsyth Rangers the previous Saturday and away to Kelty Hearts seven days prior to that.

Next up for Rovers is a trip to Bo’ness United this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm, to begin their 11th Lowland League campaign, and winger Danny Galbraith, named as captain at the weekend upon making his first appearance of pre-season, is relishing the prospect of returning to action against his old club.

“It should be good,” said the 32-year-old, at Bo’ness for the 2021/22 season.

“The first game of the season is always one you look forward to, regardless of who you’re playing or where you’re playing. We’re just desperate to get going.”

That’s followed by Rovers’ first home fixture of next term next Tuesday, against East Stirlingshire, with kick-off at 7.45pm, and Galbraith is also looking forward to that one.

“It’s always good to play your first game at home and it’s important this season that we improve our home form, so there’d be no better way to get off on the right foot than to get three points from that one,” he said.

“It’s important if you’re going to have a successful season that you make your home ground a fortress and there’s no reason we shouldn’t be doing that, given the facilities we’ve got there.

Rovers beat Bo’ness and Shire away last season, by 2-1 in October and 1-0 in November respectively, but lost to both at home, by 3-2 and 2-0 in February.

Looking back over Saturday’s friendly win against Newtongrange, Galbraith added: “It was great to be back.

“It was our last game before the real stuff starts so the result really wasn’t all that important – it was all about putting a good performance in ahead of our first game, so if you get both the performance and the result, that sets you up nicely going into the season.

“It was important for me to introduce myself to our new players and integrate myself back into things.

“I was fully aware of the type of players the club were bringing in because we’re trying to improve every season and build on what we’ve done before, and we did a lot of our signings early, which is always good as it allows time to get used to how we want to play as that might well be very different to what they’ve been used to before.

“Our style of play will be identical to last season as we’re clear, and have been for some time, on the way we want to play, but we want to improve within that system.

“That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to bring in players who’ll make us better.

“Our style of play is non-negotiable so it’s important that we get players in who’ll complement that.

“I’d like to think that the squad we have this season are stronger than the one we had last year as that’s the plan – to keep progressing season on season.”