FAIRYDEAN Rovers boss Steven Noble believes his new central midfielder Daryl Devlin can lead his team to glory.

The former Spartans and Edinburgh City player is one of five new faces to arrive at Netherdale over the summer.

And, despite a three-nil defeat on Friday against East Fife, Devlin produced a man-of-the-match performance.

Noble told us: “Daryl is a quality player and, for me, was probably the best player on the pitch against East Fife.

“I spoke with him in the summer and he liked the set up we have here at Gala and also the type of football we want to play.

“He is exactly the type of player we were looking for - he is skilful, is great at training and has a really good attitude.

“He will be tremendous in the Lowland League this season.” Also making their debuts for the Fairydean Rovers on Friday were former Vale duo Keith Lough and Ross Aitchison. And former Hibs midfielder Darran Thomson also pulled on the red-and-black shirt for the first time.

Grant Robinson also made his return to Netherdale after three seasons with Ancrum in the Border Amateur leagues.

Noble added: “I thought all of the new boys did well - in fact you couldn’t really fault any of the squad. The game may have come a bit early for us as we have just started pre-season training but we competed well.

“East Fife are building a team that can win promotion this season and we weren’t all that far behind them.” Gala Fairydean Rovers have also appointed Joe Brown as a coach for the forthcoming season.

Gala’s were due to face next Tyneside club Jarrow on Saturday in their next pre-season friendly but the game was called off earlier this week.