Gala goal hero Scott-Taylor Mackenzie on move to Berwick

The 24-year-old has signed a pre-contract agreement with Ian Little’s Northumbrian side keeping him there until mid-2023 and will head east this summer once the current league season, on hold since January 11 as part of efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus, is either completed or abandoned.

Mackenzie, with the Galashiels side for two years, has scored eight goals in 12 league appearances for them this season.

That tally puts him joint third, with East Stirlingshire’s Andy Rodggers and Kelty Hearts’ Kallum Higginbotham, in the league’s list of top goalscorers, behind Nathan Austin, also of Kelty, on ten and Stirling University’s Jamie Penker on 11.

It also accounts for more than a third of the 22 goals scored so far this season by the seventh-placed Borderers, four league places and six points, with a game in hand, ahead of his new team.

The left-footed midfielder, formerly a youth player for Livingston and St Johnstone, got his first experience of the senior game in his home city of Edinburgh with Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale in 2015 before moving on to Fife’s Kelty Hearts in July 2017 and then Gala in March 2019.

Little said: “Scott will be a great addition to our team. He brings good experience in this league for a young lad.

“He’s a very composed player with good passing ability and carries a goal threat, particularly from set-pieces.

“He’s a player we can see has a great desire in the game and who wants to help drive the club forward, and with eight goals from midfield this season, we hope he can continue that goal-scoring form at Shielfield Park.”

His current team are also wishing him well, with chairman Ryan Cass saying: “Scott’s been a great player for us and we wish him all the best.

“Berwick train in Edinburgh so logistically it makes sense for him as I’d imagine he’ll be wanting to be closer to home.

“He goes with all our best wishes.”

As things stand, Mackenzie might face his new team-mates once or even twice before moving south of the border as the two sides have yet to meet in the league this season.

They had been due to play back-to-back games at Netherdale on Boxing Day and in Berwick on New Year’s Day, but the first had to be postponed to accommodate Scottish Cup fixtures and the latter was ruled out by adverse weather, with the suspension of lower league football a week and a half into 2021 preventing either game being rescheduled thus far.