The Maroons maintained their fourth place play-off spot despite losing 21-10 to the capital club at Malleny Park on Saturday.

However, with their rivals closing the gap and a trip to Glasgow Hawks ahead this weekend, the former Scotland star, who almost led the Maroons to their first title in 31 years last season, admitted the games aren’t going to get any easier.

Speaking to the Border Telegraph pitchside after the full-time whistle, Graham said: “It’s disappointing. We’ve been riding high the past two or three seasons and I think this season we are going to struggle a little bit.

“I said to them (the players), we either pull together or we’re looking at mid-table, potentially in a dog fight near the bottom because of our run in, and if we don’t start fixing things and getting points then that’s potentially where we could be.” But he added: “We’ve got a really tough run of games coming up - we’ve got Glasgow Hawks away, Hawick at home the week after and then we’ve got Melrose on Boxing Day. There is a lot of tough rugby to play.” Mounting injuries, including a late call-off from Samoan star Opeta Palepoi with a chest infection, forced Gala to throw debutants Gary Adams and Scott Wilkinson straight into the thick of the action from the start against Currie.

Gary Graham, Stevie Cairns and Ewan Scott were also missing from the side which hammered Currie 60-22 at Netherdale earlier in the season, while old heads Tom Weir and Ewan Johnstone were called into action.

However, while Wilkinson scored the first of Gala’s two tries following a great steal inside his own half, the visitors were outmuscled by the home side who included Glasgow Warriors hooker Kevin Bryce and prop Mike Cusack in their team.

Two tries from Bryce, both converted by James Semple, gave Currie a 14-0 interval lead. A push over try claimed by captain Ross Weston and again converted by Semple extended that further before Wilkinson and Keith Young pulled scores back for Gala.

Graham said: “We always knew Currie would have a point to prove after we beat them badly at Netherdale but we just never executed our game plan.

“In the first half, I thought we were woeful, it wasn’t a team I wanted to be associated with. But in the second half, after a bit of a talking to, they played a wee bit better and we scored a couple of good tries, but our ball retention was terrible.

“We are having to dig deep into our reserves and the boys are trying hard but, when you play in the Premiership, the standards are a wee bit higher and they are being shown up a little bit.” Gala’s injury woes were made worse midway through the first half when Craig Borthwick, last season’s Players’ Player of the Year, limped off with a suspected torn hamstring on his first Premiership start of the season following injury.

And Graham revealed they are hampering his side’s preparation for matches.

But Callum Mackintosh, who is nursing a shoulder injury, could return for Gala this weekend after being rested.

And, with the top four sides contesting the title in the end of the season play-offs, there is still all to play for.

“We need to start doing the things that we’ve done in training - because training on a Tuesday and Thursday is excellent,” Graham enthused. “The commitment’s there, the execution is there, but we don’t have the numbers to make things live because we run the risk of picking up more injuries and it just compounds our situation. I’m not making excuses, it’s just one of these things that happen.” Nevertheless, he added: “We are where we are and we just have to pull together now as a team. It’s going to be a long old tough season so we just need to dig in.” Currie now sit just one point and two places behind Gala in sixth spot in the BT Premiership.

And Currie Head Coach Ben Cairns revealed the weekend win had given his side belief they could go on to beat Gala to a play-off spot.

“We did make it hard work for ourselves but to go from getting beat by 60 points down at Netherdale, to turn it round and put in a performance like that is really pleasing,” he said. “Hopefully the guys take a lot of belief from that and we continue to grow as a team.

“Gala were missing a few boys - we appreciate that - but we’ve got real competition for places now which we probably didn’t have at the start of the season and we’ve got guys playing out of their skin to keep the jersey and that makes a huge difference to us.

“There’s only ten teams in the league and there are four in the play offs and that’s definitely what we’re looking to push on to.”