Burgh blow as Gala prepare for Scottish Cup

Musselburgh Athletic 1

Graeme McIver

at Netherdale

IT was a frustrating afternoon for Gala Fairydean Rovers as they exited the South Challenge Cup despite creating numerous second half chances against former Junior side Musselburgh Athletic.

In the game of two halves home manager Dean Shanks was to rue the missed chances.

He told us: "We were easily second best in the first half and probably that’s the worst I have seen the lads during my time at Gala.

"The goal we conceded was very poor from our point of view.

"I felt that in the second half we were much improved and we dominated the game.

"The boys did everything apart from score and passed up some golden opportunities.

"It's very frustrating as individual errors are costing us at the moment but we know what needs to be worked on and we will do this ahead of next week’s game in the Scottish Cup.”

The home side looked off the pace from the kick-off.

And they were caught out from their own set piece midway through the half.

There seemed to be no danger when Kieran Ainslie squared a free-kick to Scott Main but the former Raith Rovers defender’s attempted forward pass was intercepted by Liam Gregory who quickly played in striker Nathan Evans.

The Musselburgh forward made no mistake when one on one with Paddy Martin in the home goal.

The goal seem to at last galvanise the home side and it looked like Josh Morris would level the tie on 34 minutes as he rounded keeper Dale Cornet.

However a Musselburgh defender managed to clear the former Cowdenbeath striker's shot off the line.

Gala started the second half in a much more positive fashion and Tommy Patterson came close with a dipping drive on 50 minutes.

As Gala pushed forward in search of an equaliser there were gaps for Musselburgh to exploit and Martin saved well from Ewan Ralton on the hour mark.

The young Hibernian keeper, who was signed on the morning of the match, made a number of outstanding saves throughout the course of the afternoon.

With Patterson on the left and Baxter on the right providing quality balls into the box, Gala searched for an equaliser.

Captain Darren Smith fired narrowly over whist substitute Fraser Neave hooked a shot past Cornet’s right hand post.

The home side thought they’d drawn level on 70 minutes.

A Patterson shot had been deflected narrowly past the left hand post and from the resulting corner Kieran Ainslie rose highest to power a header towards goal.

As the Gala team prepared to celebrate, a Musselburgh defender somehow managed to head clear on the line.

The Fairydean Rovers spurned another glorious chance to equalise when the ball flashed across the goal-line on 75 minutes but the ball got caught in Fraser Neave’s feet and squeezed past the wrong side of the post.

The busy Dale Baxter rounded Cornet with just minutes remaining but it was too tight an angle for the former Hearts youngster to score.

There was just enough time for Martin to make three further fantastic saves to keep his side in the tie, but despite creating more chances it just wasn’t to be for the men from Nertherdale.

Gala Fairydean Rovers: P Martin, C Watson, S Main, K Ainslie (K Mitchell 83), R Donaldson, D Smith, D Baxter, K Watson, J Morris (R Paton 60), S Cunningham (F Neave 63) & T Patterson. Subs: S Connaghan, R Miller, G Amos