Updated with midweek result: Gala Fairydean Rovers stay second from bottom of table after eighth defeat of season
Gala Fairydean Rovers are level with new Scottish Lowland Football League East basement side Stirling University on three points from a potential 27 at the foot of the table after both were hit by their eighth defeats of the new season on Saturday.
Rovers were edged out 2-1 away to table-toppers Tranent at the same time as the Stirling students were being handed a 6-1 hiding at sixth-placed Bonnyrigg Rose.
Those results leave manager Martin Scott’s Borderers as they were, second from bottom, with Stirling Uni dropping two places from 14th, taking possession of the basement spot due to their goal difference now being two worse than Fairydean’s.
Prior basement side Dunipace move up to 14th place, on four points from eight fixtures, after claiming their first win of the current campaign on Saturday, by 2-1 at home to Edinburgh’s Civil Service Strollers.
Jared Lyons scored Liam Fagan-captained Fairydean’s goal in East Lothian on Saturday past home No 1 Kelby Mason, on 53 minutes, from the penalty spot, that spot-kick being awarded by referee Daniel Graves for a foul on Kilmarnock loan striker Noah Simpson.
It was sandwiched by Corey Thomson’s opener for gaffer Robbie Horn’s hosts beyond visiting keeper Reece Murray six minutes in and Tiwi Daramola’s match-winner seven minutes ahead of full-time.
Rovers’ other starters against a side featuring their former loanee Jamie McMurdo were Che Reilly, Gregor and Ross Lamb, McKenzye Campbell, Lewis Hall, Ethan Dougal and Lennon Connolly, with James Clare, Tylar Denholm, Arnault Kasa, Gerg Macpherson, Daniel Strickland, Zack Tomany and Joe Wylie on the bench.
Saturday’s eighth defeat of the season was Fairydean’s second by 2-1 in the space of four days, the other having been at home at their Netherdale Stadium ground to Bonnyrigg last Wednesday.
Dougal was Gala’s goal-scorer that time round, on the half-hour mark, in between goals for their Jonny Stewart-managed Midlothian opponents from Scott Robinson on 13 minutes and Taylor Hogarth on 87.
Fagan was skipper for that game too and also starting were Murray, Reilly, Campbell, Macpherson, Lyons, Hall, Connolly, Simpson and Ross Lamb, with Clare, Denholm, Kasa, Gregor Lamb, Strickland, Tomany and David Chalmers as substitutes.
Though he’s yet to end up on the right side of a result, Simpson, 17, says he’s glad to be in Galashiels and looking forward to the rest of the season, telling Rovers’ Facebook page: “I’m really enjoying it.
“It’s good experience for me at a young age getting to play men’s football to try to up my game and physicality.”
Next up for Fairydean after that were two KDM Evolution Trophy fixtures on the trot against Scottish Professional Football League opposition, a goalless draw at home to Edinburgh’s Spartans in Galashiels on Tuesday and an away-day to William Hill League One’s Alloa Athletic this coming Saturday, with kick-off in Clackmannanshire at 3pm.
Their midweek stalemate against William Hill League Two’s Spartans earned Rovers their first point of their inaugural campaign contesting the trophy, alias the SPFL Challenge Cup campaign.
They’re one of three teams on a single point from the opening four fixtures of the cup’s league phase, leaving them 34th in the table, five points off a top-22 placing to make the cut for progress to November’s round of 32.
They’ve still got six points left to play for, however, their other remaining fixture after this weekend being at home to further third-tier opposition in the form of Hamilton Academical on Tuesday, October 13, with kick-off at 7.45pm.
Fagan was skippering again in midweek and his fellow starters were Murray, Macpherson, Gregor Lamb, Campbell, Lyons, Kasa, Hall, Reilly, Wylie and Strickland, with Clare, Denholm, Dougal, Ross Lamb, Tomany, Harry Penny and Kacper Kuchciak as back-up.