Gala Fairydean Rovers: Midfield ace Danny Galbraith stunned at team blowing two-goal lead against East Kilbride for second straight season

Almost exactly a year on from Rovers cuffing the South Lanarkshire side 3-1 after 50 minutes at Netherdale on December 3, 2022 before ultimately crashing 5-4, Galbraith’s team were 2-0 up on 40 minutes at K-Park last Saturday after goals by Ethan Dougal and Ben Reilly, but then incredibly 3-2 down by half-time before collapsing to a 4-2 defeat with EK goals by Scott Ferguson (3, 1 penalty) and Nathan Flanagan.

"We seem to have a habit of doing this against East Kilbride,” Galbraith, 33, told the Southern Reporter. "I think on Saturday you could see the younger lads getting a bit edgy thinking: ‘East Kilbride are top of the league, should we be winning 2-0 here?’

"Of course that’s natural but it was one of the most frustrating games of the season because I fully expected us to kick on and not collapse the way we did in a five-minute spell.

"I would say that’s probably one of the sides of our game we need to work on. We’re pretty inexperienced as a team.

"I think we kind of let loose against the bigger boys at times and have some great results, but sometimes when we have a little setback in a game like that I think perhaps we’ve not got the experience or the belief to really go and think we should be winning.

“It was a bit of a mental game on Saturday. We were 2-0 up and had a couple of good chances after that.

"Then we had a brilliant chance to go 3-0 up (through Jamie Semple) 30 seconds before they scored their first but missed it after maybe making the wrong decision. I think it was a case of that coming back to bite us.

“Because their goalie managed to clear the ball and the next minute it was in the back of our net for 2-1 and we looked a little bit fragile for a spell after that.”

But ‘fragile’ was the last thing Martin Scott's side had looked earlier in the contest, with Dougal running through impressively to slot home left footed after just five minutes before Reilly netted the rebound after Semple’s initial shot had been saved to make it 2-0 on 11 minutes.

But league leaders East Kilbride scored three times in a crazy 12-minute spell (including injury time) before half-time, with Gala failing to deal with crosses for Ferguson’s first two goals and then the same player netting from the spot past keeper Jay Cantley after a penalty award which Galbraith rated as ‘controversial’.

The former Bo’ness United player added: “I think the third goal was a very suspect penalty decision.

"I don’t know what happened. Even when you watch it back you can’t tell.

"The ball was played into their player with his back to goal. It looked like Ethan (Dougal) had kicked the ball away but their player decided to fall to the floor and the ref gave a penalty when I don’t think any of the East Kilbride players appealed for it.

"The majority of us were bamboozled when the whistle went.

"I think even East Kilbride would say they got out of jail with that one.

"So it was a huge blow to be 2-0 up after 40 minutes and then go in behind at half-time.

"When you lose three goals in a few minutes, there’s obviously a state of panic in the team at that point.

"The message from the manager at half-time was: ‘Let’s calm down, we’ve got 45 minutes to go’.”

But East Kilbride kept Gala’s chances to a minimum after the break and added a fourth goal in injury time.

Rovers, 12th in the Lowland League with 21 points from 18 games, continue their league campaign at home to seventh-placed Linlithgow Rose this Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.