Jed-Forest 65

Gala 6

Atholl Innes at Riverside Park

SCORELINES can be deceptive, but not on Saturday at Riverside Park.

One of Gala’s worst defeats in living memory was devastating and equally traumatic.

Jed outgunned, outplayed and finally swamped a Maroons’ side in a BT National League/Booker Border League double with no fewer than nine tries and left Gala’s hopes of promotion back into the Premiership hanging by a thread after three successive defeats.

A despondent and shocked captain Graeme Speirs was almost in tears and stuck for words after the final whistle.

“There is not a lot I can say about that,” he said.

“The driving line-outs have been a bit of an issue for us this year. It is one of these things. We do not have a huge squad and we need to make sure that we work hard and we have to stay patient.

“There are no games this weekend, but I hope that the players will come to training.

"We have a few guys who are injured – Stevie Cairns, Chris Keen and Scott Wilkinson – and they are influential. I am not saying by any stretch of the imagination is that is why we lost, but I am sure a bit of a break will do us good.”

There was certainly no despondency in the Jed camp.

Assistant coach Ross Goodfellow agreed that the club would press on for a Premiership place.

“We played well and won with a big score.

"We have never kicked on in the second half, and we did this time. Everyone from one to 20 put in a performance and our main aim is the league,” he said.

“We are definitely looking to go up for we need to look to improve. If we thought if we were not capable of going up, what is the point of it?”

Gala now face Boroughmuir at Meggetland in the cup on November 18 – and Speirs hopes that by then they Maroons will have recovered from the Jed mauling.

It was up front where Gala surrendered to the driving Jed pack, although they did ‘steal’ three line-outs, but overall they were outmuscled – not helped either by two yellow cards dished out to props Mike Christie and Terry Logan by referee Sam O’Neil while Jed’s Joe Northwood also found himself in the sin-bin.

Gala were twice ahead in the early stages through two Gregor Hunter penalties, but Jed were to run rampant with tries in the first half from Paulo Ferreira, Blake Roff, Monty Mitchell and Callum Young.

There was no repentance after the break as Robbie Shirra-Gibb notched a double to add to scores by Rory Marshall, Andrew Sanders and Ferreira again.

Ewan Scott, who returned to Jed after a spell at Gala, added seven conversions and kicked two penalties.

Gala: G. Speirs; J. Turnbull, R. Jeffrey, A. Emond, C. Russell; G. Hunter, E. Gunter; M. Christie, L. Roden, T. Logan, C. Weir, J. Watson, R. Tod, T. Weir, F. Hunter.