Gala Fairydean Rovers 1

Bonnyrigg Rose 5

David Knox

at Netherdale

GALA’S recent revival came to an abrupt end on Saturday against a title-hungry Bonnyrigg Rose.

And manager Neil Hastings admitted it was a rude reminder of how far his fledgling squad still have to improve.

Following a recent month of encouraging performances and results, Gala looked more than a match for Rose during a fast-paced first half.

But frailties were exposed after the interval as Robbie Horn’s impressive team dominated.

Hastings told us: “That was hugely disappointing.

“Every individual error we made out there was punished.

“When we make errors we don’t have the players to recover and prevent it turning into a goal for the opposition.

“Credit to Bonnyrigg, I thought they were good in the second half, but it shows how far we still have to go as a group of players.”

It was the visitors who started best with former Selkirk striker George Hunter controlling Daniel Baur’s cross to slot beyond Kit McRitchie after eight minutes.

But the response from the hosts was terrific.

Several one-touch passes in the final third sent Zander Murray racing towards the byline, and his low cross was smashed into the net by Marc Berry.

Gala continued to press and only a goalline clearance from Baur prevented Berry firing them in front from a similar Murray cross.

But Bonnyrigg aren’t challenging at the top for no reason and both Ben Herdman and Gareth Rodger were made to work as the movement of Kieran McGachie and Hunter was impressive.

McRitchie had made a fine save to push away a McGachie header in the 36th minute.

But just three minutes later Hunter broke down the left and his attempted cross deflected off Scott Taylor Mackenzie and into his own net.

It went from bad to worse for Taylor Mackenzie after the interval as he gave away a needless corner six minutes after the restart.

And from the resultant cross Baur bundled the ball over the line at the far post.

Any hopes Gala had of mounting a fightback ended in the 56th minute as Lewis Grant was shown a straight card for a lunging challenge.

Rose saw out the half with relative ease as Hunter added to the tally with quarter of an hour remaining.

And to rub salt into the wounds former Berwick Rangers star Lee Currie dinked in a fifth in the closing stages.

Bonnyrigg manager Horn said: “It was a difficult first half and if you’d asked me at half time I’d have been happy to leave with a 2-1 win.

“I thought we pressed better in the second half which led to the goals.”

Gala Fairydean Rovers. K McRitchie, L Grant, A Chingwalu, B Herdman, G Rodger, S Taylor Mackenzie, M Berry (L Kinchant 63), N Kelly ((U Korona 81), A Murray, D Galbraith & J Campbell.