Gala Fairydean Rovers pleased to get 2023 off to winning start after ending last year with defeat at Berwick

Midfielder Ciaren Chalmers scored Rovers’ first goal at their Netherdale home ground in Galashiels against the students four minutes ahead of half-time, with winger Danny Galbraith doubling their advantage on 70 minutes.

Galbraith also got on the scoresheet at Shielfield Park at the weekend with a 35-yard shot applauded as a “wonder goal” by opposition manager Stuart Malcolm to take his tally for the season to five and put the visitors ahead with 21 minutes on the clock.

Liam Buchanan equalised for the hosts on 41 minutes, however, and a 54th-minute goal by Michael Travis ensured all three points stayed in Northumberland and enabled his side to do the double against player-manager Martin Scott’s Gala side, having beaten them 2-0 in the Borders in September.

The three points Rovers picked up in midweek take their total for the current Scottish Lowland Football League season to 33 from 23 games and that sees them sitting 11th in the table.

That win was just the tonic Scott’s troops needed after throwing away their lead south of the border three days earlier, according to Galbraith.

“It was certainly one of my better goals at Berwick but it never quite feels the same when you don’t get any points to go with it,” said the 32-year-old.

“We knew that with the way they play if we managed to make a couple of passes, spaces would open up. The frustration was that we didn’t do enough of that.

“It was really important that we won on Tuesday night. It was a pretty big game for us after, having been on such a great run, we’d not done so well in the previous four or five matches, beating Civil Service Strollers excepted.

“No disrespect to Edinburgh University but they’re the kind of team we need to beat if we’re going to keep looking up the way, so it was big win, especially as the Berwick result was disappointing.

“The most important thing was getting three points to kick-start us for 2023.”

Galbraith says Tuesday’s win will boost his team-mates’ confidence ahead of their next game – against Motherwell’s Caledonian Braves at home this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm – but he’s all too aware that their visitors will have cause to feel confident too, having thumped basement side Dalbeattie Star 10-0 that same evening.

“Caledonian Braves had a dominant win on Tuesday so we’ve probably not picked the best time to play them, but it’s obviously a good game for us to look forward to,” he said.

“When we’ve played them previously, it’s always been a decent game because I think both teams try to play the right way so it normally makes for a decent game of football.

“I’m sure they’ll go into it confident after a great win, but so will we, having got our new year off to a decent start with a win.”

The teams’ last meeting, their first match of the season, was a 2-2 draw in North Lanarkshire’s Strathclyde Country Park in July, with Marc Berry and Zander Murray netting for the Borderers.