Late equaliser sees Gala Fairydean Rovers rescue point from reunion with former manager Martin Scott

The 40-year-old returned to Galashiels with the Northumbrians on Saturday and saw fellow former Hibernian forward Josh O’Connor put them in front 16 minutes in with a goal past home No 1 Reece Murray, a lead they held onto until two minutes ahead of full-time.

On-loan Kilmarnock striker Noah Simpson denied the visitors all three points on 88 minutes, however, finally finding a way past visiting goalkeeper Owen Hayward to leave honours even as Rangers were left outnumbered by a red card for Ben McCrystal a minute later.

That point apiece leaves interim manager Steven Noble’s Borderers and their English opponents respectively 13 and 14th in the table on seven points and six, both from 11 fixtures, ahead of a midweek fixture card on Wednesday.

Fairydean are at home to West Lothian’s fourth-placed Broxburn Athletic and Berwick are away to basement side Stirling University, both 7.45pm kick-offs.

Next up after those midweek games are visits this coming Saturday from fifth-placed Brechin City for Rovers and tenth-placed East Stirlingshire for Rangers, both 3pm starts.

The former will be Fairydean’s first meeting ever with the Angus outfit but Berwick and ’Shire are anything but strangers, having played each other more than 160 times since the mid-1950s, with the Shielfield Park side getting the better of their two games last season, drawing 2-2 at home last August and winning February’s reverse fixture at Stenhousemuir’s Ochilview Park 3-1.

Making up the rest of the hosts’ starting line-up at the weekend, captained by Liam Fagan, were Greg Macpherson, Daniel Martins, McKenzye Campbell, Jared Lyons, Lewis Hall, Zack Tomany, Lennon Connolly, Che Reilly and Joe Wylie, with David Chalmers, James Clare, Tylar Denholm, Danny Galbraith, Ross Lamb, Daniel Strickland and Simpson on the bench.

Lining up against them, alongside Hayward and O’Connor, were captain Greg Binnie, Alfie Robinson, Kyle Somers, Mikey Mbewe, Grant Leitch, Taylor Hendry, Mark McConnell, Ross Nelson and Ryan Turner, with McCrystal, Calum Antell, Lewis Barr, Michael Barfoot, Caelan McCrone, Isaac Deh and Liam Gregory as substitutes.

Noble was happy enough to salvage a point from a losing position, telling Edinburgh-based vlogger Norrie Work afterwards: “Credit to Berwick, they held out for a lot longer than I wanted them to, but we got that goal when we eventually got it and we thoroughly deserved it.

“With the chances we created, we dominated the second half and I was just wondering if it was going to be one of those days when the goal doesn’t come.

“I was really pleased with young Noah. He’s been a revelation since he came in, and he tucked it away, and after that, I thought ‘we’re going on to win this game’ and we had chances to win it. It was just lacking that final bit of quality required to put it in the net that cost us.

“I’m really proud of the players. They’ve shown an upturn in their performances and results in recent weeks, and any team that come to Gala isn’t going to get it easy and I think we showed that today.

“We’ve been working a lot on our finishing and trying to be more clinical and we’ll continue working on that, but the boys are doing the right things. They’re making the right runs, they’re creating chances and that’s the pleasing thing.

“That bit of quality in the final third wasn’t quite there today but it’ll come. We’re heading in the right direction, so hopefully in the coming weeks, we can take those chances.”

Scott added: “It was a pretty open game.

“It was probably an off-day for us but we’ve come away with a point and we almost saw it out. That shows we’ve got resilience and character and you could see the guys were putting their bodies on the line there.

“Sometimes you just have to dust yourselves down and look forward to the next game.

“There were only small margins in the game.”