Gala 20 - 30 Stirling County

GALA coach George Graham was left speechless after watching his side suffer their fifth straight Premiership defeat at the hands of Stirling County at the weekend – a result which leaves them languishing second bottom of the league table.

The former Scotland star has come agonisingly close to leading the Maroons to their first Scottish championship in over 30 years during recent seasons.

However, with some of the club's biggest hitters going on to win professional contracts, he is continually having to rebuild his side. And the new faces have little time to settle.

South African signing Rob Louw made his debut against Stirling on Saturday, just days after his arrival at Netherdale.

But it was another new face this season, Matt Carryer, who gave Gala an early lead, with the first score of the game, which was converted by Craig Dods who started the move.

Stirling bounced back with two tries in five minutes, both scored by Danny Gilmour. But Jonny Hope was unable to convert either.

Hope did get on the score sheet at the third attempt with a try for Stirling in the 26th minute.

But Gala were quick to respond with a try from Luke Pettie. Both of which went unconverted.

Glasgow Warriors centre Sam Johnson secured the four try bonus point for Stirling with another score on the stroke of half-time, to leave Gala trailing 12-20.

However, the home side started the second half as they did the first with an early score. Graham Speirs sprinted over the line after George Graham sent him on his way following a great break out of their own half to bring Gala within three points of Stirling.

Craig Dods missed the conversion. But he made amends in the 56th minute when he slotted over a drop goal to equalise the scores.

Then, just as Gala looked as though they were beginning to exert their influence on the game, Stirling scored their fifth try.

Shaun Treweek skipped through the Gala defence to touch down at the side of the posts in the 68th minute and he added an easy conversion to make the score Gala 20, Stirling 27. 

And, as if to rub salt in the home side's wounds, Treweek added a penalty for the visitors with the final kick of the ball to round off the scoring and deny their hosts a losing bonus point, with the scoreboard at full-time reading: Gala 20, Stirling County 30.

While the Gala coach side-stepped the media scrum at the end of the game, Stirling coach David Adamson told the Border Telegraph: “We spoke about the importance of this game during the week, it's like a proverbial ten pointer because if we had lost that we would have been a wee bit adrift at the bottom, with Selkirk below us.

“We went well against Melrose a few weeks ago and we just wanted to build on the confidence and the belief in the squad and on the whole I'm really happy with today.”

He added: “Although we had a few heavy losses against Ayr and Currie, it's quite a new squad, new coaching staff and a few new players in the team so we were always confident it would eventually click.”

Gala: Craig Dods, Graham Speirs, Dwayne Burrows, Alan Emond, Frankie Robson, Rex Jeffrey, George Graham; Luke Pettie, Matt Carryer, Chris Keen, Callum Rowlandson, Opeta Palepoi, Rob Louw, Gary Adams, Euan Dods. Replacements: Richard Todd, Stevie Carins, Josh Irvine, Ian Ross, Keith Young. 

Stirling: Dylan Taikato-Simpson, Jonny Hope, Nick Grigg, Sam Johnson, Danny Gilmour, Shaun Treweek, Alex Black; Colin Hutton, Reyner Kennedy, Garry Mountford, Callum Hunter-Hill, Ruairidh Leishman, Struan Robertson, Shaun McDonald, Vaka Manu. Replacements: Cameron Fenton, Mark Hunter, Ed Howgate, Patrick Nicol, Matt Lamb.