​Late Liam Watt goal lifts Gala Fairydean Rovers off foot of Scottish Lowland Football League table

​Following Ethan Dougal netting on four minutes and Kieran Dolan on 65, with Callum McKenzie and Alex Fairlie replying on ten and 56 for visitors Broomhill, Watt’s late contribution to the scoresheet earned Rovers a 3-2 victory in a bottom-of-the-table six-pointer at Galashiels’ Netherdale Stadium, making amends for a defeat by the same scoreline in November’s reverse fixture on the road.

That seventh victory of the season for manager Martin Scott’s hosts leave them level with their visitors from Dumbarton on 28 points from 33 fixtures but a goal difference seven better sees the Borderers edge up one place to 17th, with Broomhill replacing them in the basement spot.

To stay off the bottom of the table, Rovers will need to do better than Broomhill this coming Saturday, that being this season’s final fixture card.

Fairydean are away to 14th-placed Gretna 2008 and Broomhill host Edinburgh’s eighth-placed Civil Service Strollers, both 3pm kick-offs.

Depending on how those games go and how third-from-bottom Cumbernauld Colts get on at home to fourth-placed Linlithgow Rose at the same time, Rovers could end this campaign 16th, 17th or 18th.

Though a proposed league reorganisation means ending up 18th looks unlikely to lead to relegation to the East of Scotland Football League’s premier division, as would otherwise have been the case, any of those positions would be Fairydean’s joint or outright worst finish to date in their 11 seasons in Scottish football’s fifth tier.

Their previous lowest finishes were 16th last year and 13th in 2022 and 2018.

Rovers, one of a dozen founder members of the Lowland League in 2013, are the Borders’ last men standing 12 years on following exits for Hawick Royal Albert in 2018, Selkirk in 2019 and Vale of Leithen in 2022.

They go into this weekend’s season finale on the back of eight wins in 13 league games against Gretna, their most recent meeting having been a 2-0 win for the Dumfries and Galloway side at Netherdale in December’s reverse fixture, thanks to goals from Robbie Ivison and Reece Paterson.

Rovers took four points off Gretna last term, however, drawing 0-0 away at Raydale Park last April and beating them 4-1 at home the preceding September.