Gala lost slight ground, Melrose climbed towards the summit, but with 10 matches remaining before the play-offs, this undulating league can open many cans of worms.

The Maroons headed three miles down to the road on one of the windiest Saturdays of the season. However, the warmth of an autumnal day chilled Gala’s bones as Melrose, in the second half in particular, took a stranglehold on the game.

Gala’s forwards have proved the cornerstone of success; on Saturday Melrose were their match to lift the Premiership and Border League wide open.

Chris Dalgleish, who took over as backs coach from Scott Nichol at the start of the season, admitted: “We made too many mistakes in the first half. The game hinged on the two scores from our mistakes and we should have got something before half-time and this would have given us a lift.

“Our boys struggled with the interpretation of a few things by the referee (Fergus Kirby) and we are a wee bit frantic and hope to learn from it.” No such despondency in the Melrose camp, boosted by the return of Joe Helps after injury and Bruce Colvine from New Zealand, and also a spell at Darlington.

Coach John Dalziel admitted: “We have been a bit inconsistent in the first few games, and we put ourselves in a position that we needed to beat teams like Gala (after their narrow win over Heriot’s a week earlier).

“We asked the players for a bit more and we showed that we can beat anyone in this league if we get our attitude right and start to play like a real unit and a team.” Gala faced the wind in the first half, but they had chances to score before Melrose broke the duck at the other end when a poor clearance allowed Graeme Dodds to score close to the left-hand corner.

A break by Alan Emond stretched the home defence, and then a series of scrums led to Euan Dods scoring from a pick-up at the base of the scrum.

Melrose profited from a Helps penalty and then an interception which ended with Neil Irvine-Hess scoring at the other end and Helps added the conversion This enabled Melrose to lead 15-5 at the break despite intense Gala pressure from which Melrose emerged with immense credit for its defensive work.

The referee handed out yellow cards to Tom Weir and Fraser Thomson, and while both sides utilised replacements, Melrose were in command, and Peter Eccles’ (voted Border League Booker Man-of-the-Match) try, converted by Helps, with 20 minutes left ended the contest.

Thomson said: “We lost our last game in the Border League to Hawick so it’s good to get back with a win. Gala were top of the league and they were coming here to spoil the party after we took the league off them last year so we wanted to get the four points and I thought we defended really, really well today.

“Last week (against Heriot’s) we made a lot of errors, but I thought we cut down on them. The conditions were pretty greasy but the boys dug in really deep and towards the end of the first half defended our line for everything and I think that maybe turned the game.” But, looking ahead to this weekend, he added: “Ayr are another good side, it will be a big game up there.” Gala strived for a losing point, but fell short despite Shaun Law’s late try – but with much to play for yet.

big hit with ewan mcquillin Prop Rory Sutherland, who signed a contract with Edinburgh in the summer, said: “I’ve enjoyed the last couple of weeks (playing for Gala) but I guess today the boys just didn’t turn up. Melrose are a good outfit and if we don’t turn up they will beat us. We prepared for it well, in the forwards and the backs, but they just came out on top in the end. Melrose got the wind in the first half and they used it pretty well, we had it in the second and we didn’t really use it.

“We’re still above Melrose in the table but beating them would have been good. We just have to try and build on that for next week. Heriot’s will be feeling pretty confident after beating Ayr but it will be a really good rebound game for us to try and get back up on the horse.” Melrose: F. Thomson; C. Anderson,T. Mua, J. Helps, G. Taylor; A. Lockington, M. McAndrew; N. Beavon, T. Pearce, E. McQuillin; J. Head, L. Carmichael, N. Irvine-Hess, G. Dodds, P, Eccles. Replacements: R. Ferguson, N. Little, R. Miller, B. Colvine, R. Mill.

Gala: R. Howarth; B. Thompson, K. Young, A. Emond, G. Somerville; R. Jeffrey, George Graham; R. Sutherland, C. Mackintosh, G. Robertson, C. Weir, O. Palepoi, Gary Graham, E. Dods, S. Cairns. Replacements: R. Anderson, E. Johnstone, T. Weir, G. Hart, S. Law.