Tennent’s Premiership promotion push back on track for Gala after victory in capital

Gala's Glenn McCrum getting stopped in his tracks on Saturday by Stewart's Melville's Euan Macrury and Courtney West (Photo: Alwyn Johnston)

Gala are back to winning ways after two defeats on the trot and they’re now looking to maintain that momentum to undo any damage done to their challenge for rugby’s Tennent’s National League Division 1 title, says head coach Stuart Johnson.

Saturday’s 32-7 victory against basement side Stewart’s Melville in Edinburgh was the Galashiels team’s first win since they edged out Biggar 23-17 away back on Saturday, October 8 – having lost 27-23 at home to Kelso and 14-10 at Highland since – and their aim now is to follow it up with further success hosting Stirling County on Saturday, November 12, a match kicking off at 3pm.

Promotion to the Tennent’s Premiership is still Gala’s target for this campaign, says Johnson, and they’re only one win away from pole position despite having had back-to-back defeats inflicted upon them.

The Maroons are currently third in the table, on 31 points from eight games, that being two points behind second-placed Ayr and three adrift of top dogs Kelso.

Andrew Mitchell touching down for Gala against Stewart's Melville at Inverleith on Saturday (Pic: Alwyn Johnston)

Their try-scorers at Inverleith Sports Ground at the weekend were Andrew Mitchell, Keith Young, Craig Dods and Tim McKavanagh, with Harris Rutherford adding a conversion and three penalties and Dods contributing a further set of extras.

Johnson is optimistic about Gala’s title challenge following their return to winning ways, though he is expecting the tussle for top spot to go right to the wire, saying: “We’re still in the mix.

“There are only four points separating the top four, so it’s all to play for.

“We said at the start of the season that the target is to go one better than last season’s second-place finish and that’s still the aim – to win the league and get up to the premiership – but the difficult thing about that is that it’s only one up and one down and there are no play-offs or anything like that, so you have to go through the season winning the majority of your games.

Tim McKavanagh scoring a try for Gala against Stewart's Melville in Edinburgh at the weekend (Pic: Alwyn Johnston)

“Let’s be honest, Kelso aren’t going to lose a lot of games and it doesn’t look like Ayr are going to lose many either.

“We’ve lost two and Melrose have lost two, with Kelso and Ayr only losing one each so far, but we’ve still got Ayr to play twice, Melrose to play twice and Kelso once.

“I think it’s going to be pretty tight at the top. I think it’s going to come down to who can keep grinding out results against the likes of Highland away and those sorts of fixture.

“It’s just about winning games at the moment and when it comes to January, then we’ll all be looking at whether we need to win with bonus points.

Gala's Craig Dods scoring against Stewart's Melville on Saturday (Pic: Alwyn Johnston)

“To get a win and pick up a bonus point as well on Saturday was good.”

Reflecting on Gala’s two losses prior to Saturday, Johnson said: “Obviously it was a close result against Kelso at home, and looking back at it, it’s probably a game that we should have won.

“At Highland, we just didn’t get off the bus unfortunately. That’s a game we should have won, so it was disappointing to go up there and not play well at all. It was probably our worst performance of the season.”

Looking ahead to seventh-placed Stirling’s visit, he added: “That’s a game we should be winning.”

Johnson is also hoping to have at least a couple of the dozen Gala players currently out injured back in the frame for that game.