Home win lifts Gala Fairydean Rovers back into top half of Scottish Lowland Football League table

That victory at Netherdale in Galashiels, secured by a 49th-minute header by captain Gareth Rodger from a Gospel Ocholi cross, lifts Rovers up two places to ninth, with 39 points from 26 games.

It also saw them do the double against their 14th-placed visitors, having won the reverse fixture in North Lanarkshire in November 4-2, and they’ve got their sights set on another winning double this coming weekend.

They’re off to Dumbarton to take on Rangers B, with kick-off at 3pm, and will be looking to follow up their 2-1 home win against the Old Firm colts, currently fourth in the league on 51 points from 24 matches, in October with more of the same on the road.

Rovers player-manager Martin Scott is promising a positive performance at the Rock on Saturday, saying: “We’re building some good momentum but as soon as a game’s finished, we’re looking to improve and looking to the next game to see how we should approach it.

“There’s a real togetherness within the group. The boys are really buying into the concept of being aggressive, playing on the front foot and trying to dominate the ball.

“The standout thing is that everyone’s playing to a high level, so everybody is doing their job effectively.

“It’s another big game we’ve got coming up away from home to Rangers B. There are no easy games in the league.

“We’re under no illusions about the scale of the task that’s in front of us. I’ve really got a lot of admiration for how they play, how they’re coached and some of the rotations they’ve got, and that’s what we’re wanting to aspire to.

“It’s another good challenge for the players, another test, and we look forward to it.

“We’ll try and nullify their threats and try to impose our own game-plan and we’ll take the game to them.

“I don’t think there’s any other way for us to approach the game.

“We like to play on the front foot and I think that’s how we’ve got to approach every game.”

Looking back over Saturday’s win, Scott said: “In the first half, we played some exceptional football.“It was really pleasing on the eye and we were probably unfortunate not to go in ahead at half-time.

“We gave the guys a challenge in the second half to see if they could keep turning the screw and up their tempo from the first half and carry on, and I feel they did that.

“Probably on another day it could have been a more comfortable win, but what was really pleasing was how resilient they were at the end when Cumbernauld were really going for it and throwing bodies forward and it became a real sort of battle at moments.

“I thought we showed our class at times and put our foot on the ball and made that extra pass to create openings.

“It was really pleasing for me, and everybody played their part.”

Saturday also saw the return of defender Ben Herdman to Rovers’ matchday squad after a year and a half out with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.