The first belonged to Daryl Devlin who was harshly sent off in the first half for a confrontation with Gretna’s Connor Graham. And in the final minute Gretna stopper James Greenall pulled off a magnificent stop to deny 10-man Gala a deserved replay. It was the red card produced by referee Craig Napier that dominated the game, and left a sour taste over a tense cup tie.

Gala boss Steven Noble said: “The referee got it wrong.

“The Gretna boy has gone down like he was shot – it was blatant cheating. I can’t fault our guys’ effort – everyone of them gave everything and we created the better chances despite being a man down.” Gala went into the cup tie with a thought of trepidation, missing likely starters Sean Paliczka, Lee Stephen, Ross Aitchison and Darran Thomson.

While the visitors were on the back foot for the majority of the first half, they grabbed a shock lead on 15 minutes as Keith Lough’s excellent cross was bundled in by Devlin after Greenall failed to clear Craig McBride’s header.

Fairydean Rovers almost grabbed a second as superb play by Devlin and Gibson set up Dean McColm who forced Greenall into action again.

But the lead vanished on 27 minutes as poor Gala defending allowed Ian Anderson to dance through a number of challenges, and set up Graham for a composed finish beyond John Dodds.

Five minutes later, Graham tarnished his performance with an act as unsporting as you are likely to see.

The winger firstly produced a poor challenge which angered Devlin, who stupidly pushed Graham, who in turn dived to the floor holding his face.

But the Gretna man was soon on his feet ungraciously punching the air when Devlin was dismissed by whistler Napier, who is no stranger to controversial red cards.

It looked like Gala’s Scottish Cup chances had disappeared as Devlin headed to the changing rooms but the 10-men managed to hang on until half time, and after the interval looked comfortable against a Gretna side devoid of ideas.

Indeed, Noble’s men went closest to scoring on 65 minutes as Gibson, who was superb throughout the tie, struck a free kick which rebounded off the post and ran along the face of goal.

In the closing stages Gretna’s territorial advantage was beginning to tell as David Rea went close with a header, and the centre half made no mistake with another header on 80 minutes to put the hosts ahead for the first time.

Gala threw on Callum Jardine and Ashley Langford and the latter’s cross in the 89th minute looked to have been headed in by McBride, only for Greenall to produce an outstanding stop to take his team into the second round.

Gretna manager Stuart Rome added: “We were very lucky today, we didn’t play well.

“I didn’t see the sending off but it seemed to spur Gala on and we were really poor in the second half.

“I am delighted to get through – the club was not in existence six years ago so it is fantastic just to be in the Scottish Cup.” Gala Fairydean Rovers: J. Dodds, G. Robinson, C. McBride, P. Hossack, A. Cosgrove (A. Langford 85), D. Devlin, K. Lough, D. Bonnar, S. Noble, D. McColm (C. Jardine 83), J. Gibson.