Updated: Gala Fairydean Rovers go up to 12th in table after home win v Bo’ness United but fall to 13th in midweek
A 3-1 win at home to Bo’ness United on Saturday has lifted Gala Fairydean Rovers up two places in the Scottish Lowland Football League table to 12th.
12th is as high as they can go this term as, on 35 points from 32 fixtures and with six left to play for, they’re six points shy of 11th-placed Cowdenbeath with a goal difference 14 worse.
Looking down the table, Rovers could yet be overtaken by either, or both, of the two teams immediately beneath them, one of them being their next opponents.
Edinburgh’s Civil Service Strollers are level with manager Martin Scott’s Borderers on points, having played the same number of games, but sit 14th because of a goal difference 18 worse and 15th-placed Stirling University, currently on 34 points, have a game in hand.
Albion Rovers, previously 15th, took 12th place off Rovers after beating East Stirlingshire 1-0 at home on Tuesday, leaving them on 36 points from 32 matches.
Next up for Fairydean is an away fixture against the Stirling students this coming Saturday and they wrap up their season at home in Galashiels to 16th-placed Gretna 2008 seven days later, both 3pm kick-offs.
Both this season’s reverse fixtures went Rovers’ way, by 2-0 hosting the university outfit in November, thanks to goals from Kieran Dolan and Danny Galbraith, and 4-1 in Dumfries and Galloway in December, with Dolan netting twice, Galbraith and Jamie Semple also on the scoresheet and Andrew Oram on target for their hosts.
Fairydean’s 11th league win of the season at the weekend, making amends for a 4-0 thumping in November’s reverse fixture at Newtown Park, was secured by three goals in the space of nine minutes past visiting No 1 Allan Fleming at Netherdale Stadium, Ethan Dougal opening the scoring on 21 minutes and Jamie McMurdo doing likewise on 22 and 30, with Lewis Hodgkiss getting one back for their visitors beyond home goalkeeper Reece Murray on the hour mark.
The hosts’ starters, besides Murray, captain Galbraith and their two scorers, were Che Reilly, Keaghan Jacobs, Liam Fagan, Greg Macpherson, Josh Mulgrew, Jared Lyons and Joe Wylie.
Arnault Kasa and Owen Calder were brought on to replace Mulgrew and Wylie respectively on 69 minutes, with Mo Adam, Clark Bexfield and Conal Shields coming on for Fagan, Dougal and McMurdo on 85.