And, after a stuttering start to the season, they brought high-flying Heriot’s back down to earth in the BT Premiership at the weekend.

But fourth placed Melrose, who are seven points off the pace, will go into this weekend’s derby with league leaders Gala as underdogs, according to Head Coach John Dalziel.

Saturday’s game at the Greenyards, which is expecting a bumper crowd, takes on even greater significance than normal as it doubles as a Border League match.

And it will be the first time the two sides have met since the Border League Cup final at Berwick in April, which Gala won 30-14.

Looking forward to the game this weekend, Dalziel told the Border Telegraph: “We’ve proved we’re not out of this (race for the championship) by a long shot.

“We are really happy with the win against Heriot’s to get us back on track. We scored 44 points against a good side at the top of the league but defensively we’ve got to be better against Gala because they will be a few notches up from that in terms of physicality.

“We’ve got a chance, playing the top three sides (Heriot’s, Gala then Ayr in successive weeks), to reel them back in but our immediate concern is the teams around us in fourth place, we’ve got to cement ourselves into the top half of the table.

“We’ve got to adopt the underdog tag a little bit now, we need to earn the right to be competing with Gala for the top of the league and we’re not there at the moment.” But he added: “What better way than to get them here on our home patch. With attacking play like that (against Heriot’s) we’ll cause any teams problems.” Melrose are set to welcome back key kicker Joe Helps for the biggest game in the Borders this weekend. He has yet to feature for his side in the Premiership this season after fracturing his lower arm in a Border League match against Selkirk in August.

And, with missed conversions costing them the game at Hawick and a more comfortable victory over Heriot’s, Dalziel admitted he has been a miss.

But he’s not been alone on the treatment table.

Dalziel explained: “It’s timely getting Peter Eccles back, who I thought was fantastic, and Callum Anderson - guys that have been injured for a while. And Joe Helps will be back next week as well.

“It’s going to be competitive, there are a lot of good teams in this league, and Gala have shown the grit and determination to keep lifting their performances and grinding out wins.

“We’ve been at every game they have played this season and while we’re falling on the wrong side of the sword, they are falling on the right side. Hence why we’re in the position that we are, fourth.” Gala are still smarting after losing the league to Melrose on the final day of last season.

However, with the introduction of the play-offs this season, with the top four teams competing for the title in a knock-out competition after the league fixtures are completed, it is still all to play for.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the season, after winning the league on merit - by winning the most games and collecting the most points - I wasn’t a huge ambassador (of the play-offs),” Dalziel admitted. But, he smiled: “It’s starting to grow on me now with the start we’ve had.” Although the current top four teams - Gala, Ayr, Heriot’s and Melrose - have all done well in cup competitions in recent years, with such a competitive league, Dalziel warned against ruling anyone out.

“In my eyes, the team who finish top after 18 games will always deserve the credit for winning the league.

“But with the play-offs it becomes a bit of a cup competition and Ayr, Heriot’s and Gala have all been recent cup winners. And we can’t look past teams like Stirling and Currie and Hawick, they are all going to try to play a big part in this now, they are all capable of beating anyone on their day - there are loads of twists and turns to go.”