Gala Fairydean Rovers up for cups again after call-off, says winger Danny Galbraith

Last weekend’s scheduled South Challenge Cup game at East Lothian’s Musselburgh Athletic was postponed as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II two days earlier, but the Galashiels team have two other cup ties coming up offering potential to bring back silverware to Netherdale.

First up is a Scottish Cup first-round tie at home to East of Scotland Football League premier division side Sauchie Juniors tomorrow, with kick-off at 3pm.

That’s followed by an East of Scotland Cup semi-final away to League 1’s Kelty Hearts on Saturday, September 24.

Following a return to league action, they’ve then got a rearranged fixture against another EoSFL premier division outfit, Musselburgh Athletic, to follow on Saturday, October 15, with kick-off at 2.30pm.

Galbraith says he’s looking to the break from Scottish Lowland Football League duties offered by the next two weekends following the disappointment of losing 2-0 at home to Berwick Rangers last time out, a week ago on Saturday.

It also gives Gala a chance to match, or improve on, their achievement in reaching their first cup final since their revival in 2013 by merging Gala Fairydean and Gala Rovers, that being a 3-1 defeat by Linlithgow Rose in Penicuik in May. They won’t be following the same route towards silverware this time round, though, as they were knocked out of the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup on penalties by Perth side Kinnoull last month.

“It’s maybe not a bad thing,” said the 32-year-old.

“It was a really disappointing result against Berwick – for me, the most disappointing of the season – so perhaps it’s a good time for a break.

“We don’t have another league game for three weeks, I think, and we’ve now got two cup games in a row.

“We’ll be focused not just on one cup game now but on cup games for the majority of the month, so I suppose it’s an escape from the bread and butter that is the league and hopefully it gives us a chance to get back to winning ways.

“They’re certainly not going to be easy games, but that’s every game for us. I fully believe that every single game we go into, we have the ability to win, but, at the same time, if we’re not at it and have any players not at their best, equally we can lose.

“We’ll need to be ready because Sauchie and Musselburgh will be looking to take a scalp as they’re playing a team in the division above, and if we don’t match them and earn the right to play, they could be difficult afternoons for us.”

Rovers’ next league game isn’t until Wednesday, October 28, and that’s away to Gretna 2008. They go into that match 13th in the 19-team table with 11 points from nine games, five places and eight points better off than their Dumfries and Galloway hosts, though they’ve played one game more than them.

Gala won both their meetings with Gretna last season, 3-0 away last October and 3-1 at home the month after.