Graham saw his side lost its seventh game of the season, and sixth in a row, on Saturday - and that top-four spot is on hold in the knowledge that their opponents are coming up fast on the rails.

The Maroons will need to scale a few more hurdles successfully if they want to be in the play-offs, and it would not go down well if they were to be overtaken by Hawick.

The Greens shocked their opponents with an invigorating performance at Netherdale to end a run of 10 successive defeats by Gala, who were left to suffer its sixth successive Premiership loss.

Gala admitted that Hawick were the better team. “It’s five years since they beat us, but it is more than that. We are massively disappointed with the manner of the defeat. We were well beaten,” said Graham.

“We did nothing that caused Hawick any problems. We have plenty in our locker, but we are not bringing it out. We have a lot of stuff in our armoury, but we did not use it” as he revealed injuries to scrum half George Graham (ribs) and Gregor Mein (ankle).

“We are looking down the barrel of a gun (re play-offs) and we have a lot of tough matches to come. Everyone is fighting for it, and the way we are playing, it does not look as if we will be there.” The injuries added to an extending casualty list as Gala try to come to terms with the shock run of form. Graham added: “Some of the boys are out long term, but we have just to get on with it.” Hawick’s new coach, Nikki Walker, and the players will possibly wish that that there was not a break in the programme now – its next league clash is not until January 10 against Glasgow Hawks.

Walker scored two of the four Hawick tries, and they led 20-0 at the break. “The win has been a long time and it shows that we can compete with the big boys, but we are very competitive and begun to show a bit of consistency.” Ruairi Howarth missed an early penalty before Scott McLeod scored in the left-hand corner, and when Rory Hutton chipped into space, Walker was first to respond for his side’s second try.

With George Graham yellow-carded, Hawick made the extra man count for Walker to power over the line.

Hawick were in the driving seat after half-time when Nick Mactaggart dived over the line for the bonus-point try.

An Opeta Palepoi try and David O’Hagan conversion and Howarth’s score gave Gala only slight hope as Matty Douglas and Scott Peffers kept Hawick in command.

Graham added: “It’s a massive derby match and we were just outplayed. We had a terrible game today and they played very well. I think we were pretty much beat everywhere, we just didn’t have the same desire as they did.

“There is a bit of a relief that there isn’t any more (2014 Premiership) games because it means we’re not going to potentially get beat. We’re going through a bad patch, we’ve got horrendous mounting injuries - and we’ve got another couple today.

“The medical staff will be busy but we just need to keep plodding on because we’ve still got plenty rugby to play.” Gala: R. Howarth; K. Young, G. Mein, A. Emond, L. Young; D. O’Hagan, George Graham; L. Bertram, R. Anderson, C. Mackintosh, C. Weir, O. Palepoi, E. Dods, T. Weir, S. Wilkinson. Replacements: G. Robertson, E. Johnstone, K. Mein, G. Speirs, G. Somerville.