Gala Fairydean Rovers hoping to bounce back from 4-0 home defeat at weekend away to Celtic B this coming Saturday

Saturday’s 4-0 thumping at home at Netherdale in Galashiels to Caledonian Braves matches the four-goal deficits they gave away in their losses by the same scoreline at East Kilbride and 5-1 at Open Goal Broomhill in August but they’ll be looking to put it behind them at Airdrie’s Excelsior Stadium seven days on.

The Motherwell side’s scorers past home goalkeeper Ryan Goodfellow were Cameron Breadner on nine minutes and 33, Zac Butterworth on 40 and Scott Cusick 11 minutes ahead of the final whistle.

Rovers’ opposition in North Lanarkshire this Saturday go into that game on the back of a 3-0 win at Open Goal Broomhill at the weekend and sitting second in the table on 48 points from 22 games.

That’s 15 points more than the 12th-placed Borderers’ tally from 24 matches but Gala winger Danny Galbraith believes his side have got what it takes to overcome that gulf come 3pm on Saturday.

Only the odd goal in seven separated the two sides the last time they met, a 4-3 win for the Glaswegian giants’ colts at Netherdale at the start of October, and Galbraith is confident he and his team-mates can give a good account of themselves again in the reverse fixture.

Gala went in front twice last time round, thanks to goals by Lewis Hall on 20 and 62 minutes, cancelled out by equalisers from Adam Brooks on 59 and Rocco Vata on 77, and got back on level terms via Ciaren Chalmers on 85 minutes after Matthew Anderson had put the visitors ahead for the first time on 80, only for Brooks to make it 4-3 a minute ahead of the final whistle.

Recalling that match, Galbraith told us: “That was a frustrating one. It was 3-3 with a minute or two to go.

“It was a game we played really well in and we went on a winning run thereafter.

“When you play Celtic and Rangers’ B teams, you have to play well to get anything, though that game was an example of playing really well and getting nothing. If you’re not at the top of your game, the chances of getting anything are slim.

“We know, having already played them and Rangers, what these teams are like and, in fairness, we always seem to do okay against teams that like to keep the ball down and pass it, as we like to do.

“Needless to say, we’ll need to have ten or 11 players all playing somewhere close to their best, but if we do that, we can beat anybody, as we’ve shown.

“There’s no doubt that we can do it. It’s just that we can’t afford to have two or three players having an off-day as the chances would be that, with their quality, they’d be hard to overcome, but as long as we’ve got ten or 11 boys all at it and playing somewhere close to their potential, we can give anybody in the league a game.”

Rovers won their only other game against Old Firm under-21s to date this season, by 2-1 at home to Rangers’ colts at the end of October.

Their next game after their trip to Airdrie will be a rearranged East of Scotland Cup semi-final away to League 1’s Kelty Hearts on Saturday, January 14, with kick-off at New Central Park at 3pm.