Gala Fairydean Rovers still just one point off bottom of Scottish Lowland Football League table after 2-0 defeat at home to Gretna 2008

Victory at their Netherdale Stadium home ground would have taken the Borderers up to 15th place and put four points between them and basement side Cumbernauld Colts, beaten 3-1 at Linlithgow Rose, but instead they remain third from bottom, level on 15 points with 17th-placed Broomhill, though they’ve played 21 games to the West Dunbartonshire outfit’s 19.

Two goals in the opening seven minutes put Saturday’s game beyond the hosts’ reach, with Robbie Ivison netting in the first minute and Reece Paterson in the seventh, and Fairydean assistant manager Brian Delaney wasn’t happy about his team gifting that head-start to their visitors from Dumfries and Galloway.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the outcome but we’re probably more disappointed at how we started the game, to be honest,” he said after the final whistle.

“We’ve done really well recently with our attitude and our application, desire and hunger but we felt as if that was lacking today right from the off.

“If you don’t start the game properly and then you’re on the back foot, it’s difficult to turn around and so it materialised. We’re hugely disappointed.

“The goals we conceded were very, very sloppy. Positionally and organisationally, we were just poor, as was the communication between our players.

“We’re a good side. Technically we’re up there with the best in this league, in my opinion. The players have got great mastery of the ball but you need to do the basics with balls coming into the box and second balls.

“We’re reacting too often – we need to anticipate, smell danger and deal with it.

“They were two sloppy goals and unfortunately there’s been a wee pattern there of late and we need to correct that very quickly.

“It’s about starting the game properly and clearly we didn’t.

“Our attitude just didn’t seem to be right. It comes down to attitude, it comes down to belief and it comes down to resilience.

“Everyone talks about resilience and fortitude, but they domn’t come out of a laptop, a whiteboard or a flipchart – it comes down to experience and how you react in moments and unfortunately we were too reactive, and that’s happened a few times.”

Delaney is hoping for a reaction to Saturday’s loss as Rovers target a move away from the league’s one-spot relagation zone, saying: “It was wee bit of a shock today and hopefully it’ll give us a jolt.

“It was just hugely disappointing because that wasn’t us today and we need to be much, much better.

“The standard’s been set and we fell way below our expectations today.”

Saturday’s loss was Fairydean’s first to Gretna for over two years – their first at home for six years and only their second in their last ten meetings – their last defeat having been by 3-1 on the road in September 2022.

Since then, they’ve drawn with them once, 0-0 away at Raydale Park in April, and beaten them twice at home, by 4-1 last September and 3-0 the preceding April.