Late goal forces Gala Fairydean Rovers to settle for point away to Bo’ness United instead of bringing back three

Galbraith put manager Martin Scott’s visitors ahead at Newtown Park with a shot past home goalkeeper Liam Campbell four minutes in and Jamie Semple doubled their advantage three minutes ahead of half-time.

A second-half revival by the hosts saw them get a goal back via Ryan Schiavone on the hour mark and an equaliser direct from a Keir Macaulay corner beyond on-loan Rangers goalkeeper Jacob Pazikas robbed Rovers of two of the three points they’d had within their grasp, however.

Redflecting on that stalemate against one of his old clubs, the visiting skipper told us: “Perhaps a draw would have seemed like a good result before the game but it wouldn’t have looked so good at half-time, so it was a bit bittersweet, to be honest.

“In the grand scheme of things, a draw wasn’t a disaster, but having led by two goals at half-time, we were pretty disappointed afterwards to only end up with a point.

“A draw’s a funny one because it’s a point each but it felt probably more like a moral victory for Bo’ness and a defeat for ourselves purely because of the timing. Losing a late goal always has that impact.

“It wasn’t just the fact we’d been ahead – we were by far the better team, particularly in the first half.

“Putting the scoreline aside, I don’t think anybody watching that game would have had us down as the side at the bottom of the league, but that’s the reality of where we are.”

That result leaves the Galashiels side at the bottom of the table, on 19 points from 27 fixtures, and in line for relegation to the East of Scotland Football League’s premier division unless they can turn things around between now and the end of the season, beginning with a visit to Edinburgh’s Ainslie Park this Friday to take on ninth-placed Heart of Midlothian B, with kick-off at 7.45pm.

Fairydean haven’t beaten Hearts’ under-20s since their arrival in Scottish football’s fifth tier in 2022, having drawn twice and lost three times – most recently by 5-1 in August’s reverse fixture at Netherdale, with Kieran Dolan netting for the hosts and James Wilson twice, Mackenzie Ross, Callum Sandilands and Gus Stevenson scoring the other way – so now would be a good time to put that right, reckons Galbraith.

“We need to go into every game with a mindset of trying to win, so from that point of view, the opponents really are kind of irrelevant,” said the 34-year-old.

“We just need to deal with the games we have left and go into them with the right mindset looking to get maximum points.

“We’ve certainly had a couple of really good games against Hearts B and they’re normally quite competitive, so to get our first victory against them would be very welcome, and ultimately it’s about doing that by any means necessary.

“We can compete with any team on our day but, likewise, if we don’t defend properly and we concede soft goals, as we have done for too much of the season, we know that results can go against us as well.

“I don’t feel we lack the kind of quality to go out and compete with anyone but we know we have to be at it 100% or else we’ll get punished like we did on Saturday.

“If we win the majority of the games ahead of us, we’ll be fine.”