Hundreds heading north to cheer Gala Fairydean Rovers on in cup final
A Borders football club’s charity are laying on free bus travel for scores of their players, coaches and volunteers to cheer on their senior team at a national cup final this weekend.
Gala Fairydean Rovers play Cumbernauld Colts in this season’s Scottish Lowland Football League Cup final at Newtown Park in Bo’ness, near Falkirk, on Sunday, with kick-off at 3pm, and hundreds of Borderers are expected to make the 50-plus-mile journey north to support them.
Among them will be more than 100 players and coaching staff from their youth, junior, academy, disabled and walking football squads and voluntary workers being transported free of charge by the Galashiels club’s community trust as a thank-you for their efforts throughout the rest of the season and beyond.
Manager Martin Scott’s side made it to Sunday’s final via wins by 2-1 against Gretna 2008 in January’s first round, 2-0 versus table-toppers Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic in February’s quarter-finals and 2-1 against fourth-placed Tranent in the last four a week ago on Wednesday.
Sunday’s final will be Rovers’ third meeting of this season with Colts and the second in the space of just over a week, following 3-2 league defeats in North Lanarkshire in October and in Saturday gone’s reverse fixture at Netherdale Stadium.
Fairydean last visited Newtown Park in November, losing a Scottish Lowland Football League fixture 4-0 to ninth-placed Bo’ness United.
Trust chairman Graeme McIver said: “We are delighted to offer free travel to the final for members of the trust in order for them to cheer on the Fairydean first team.
“We are an organisation entirely reliant on volunteers, allowing us to operate 26 teams with around 400 players in total.
“It is thanks to their efforts and all our players that we are one of the largest sporting organisations in the south of Scotland and we wanted to express our gratitude for everything they do.”
“It is a fantastic achievement for Jimmy Scott and his team to have reached this stage of the competition and we want to make sure that the players get the full backing of hundreds of people from the town.”
Club chairman Ryan Cass added: “I want to thank all fans who have supported the team so far this season. You all play a huge part in all games at Netherdale.
“I also want to thank everyone at the community trust for arranging buses through to Bo’ness and giving a huge chunk of our volunteers the opportunity to travel to the cup final.
“We will really look forward to seeing you all on Sunday, when we hope we can bring the cup to Galashiels.”
Admission to 2,500-capacity Newtown Park is £10, £5 for concessions and free for children under 16 accompanied by adults.
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