Back To Where It All Began

So last nights result put paid to a double this season so now we have to brush ourselves down and pick ourselves up for Sunday's game. A 3-0 last night was certainly a massive disappointment, however we have no excuses, the best team won fairly comfortably on the night and fully deserve their crack at awaiting finalists Leith Athletic. As a coach the bad feeling of defeat seems to linger around longer than it did as a player, things go through your head, we as a coaching team were well prepared, we knew they were a very dangerous side, knew their strengths but we just didn't execute this on the night. The only thing I personally can out it down to was the fact we had a really draining local derby on Sat v Dalbeattie and maybe this had an affect and coupled with the travelling away to the capital midweek which is never easy, but again credit to Lothian Thistle they fully deserved the result.

Onto Sunday, over the years Netherdale has been a very happy hunting ground for Gretna, on a personal note I scored my 1st goal there, I'd love to say it was a screamer but it was more a bundle over the line (but they all count), we also won our 1st ever trophy there when we won ironically the Image Printers Cup in our inaugural season after beating Tynecastle 4-2, that was a great day and personally made me really proud as a local lad. If you look at the picture below I don't think the Netherdale pitch ever recovered so they had to put the 3G surface down. 

However things don't get much tougher than East Kilbride, but I think the underdog tag will suit us, they are a very strong team all over the park but also have some superb players, and if I was picking a Lowland League Select there would definitely be 2/3 of their players in it. We will hopefully have Adam Main and Alan Inglis back in contention for Sunday, which will give us a massive boost, the squad are together and this is no more apparent than 2 lads (Darren Addison and Dean Rea) who have had prior engagements this weekend thinking the season would be finished by now have cancelled their arrangements in order to play. Let's hope our fans and the town in general will come to Galashiels in force to support the lads, I believe there are still a limited number of spaces on the bus if anybody is interested please book your seat by contacting Craig Williamson on craig@cswinsurance.co.uk.

On other news we have 3 out of 4 teams secured for this years Raydale Cup, more details and announcement to follow, there are a limited number of tickets available for the Matt Le Tissier speakers night at the Shepherds Inn so don't delay, and this years Annual Presentation night will be held in the 'wee bar' next Friday night 22nd May, all welcome.

See you all next season

Nikki