The club's home ground |
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| Full name | Gala Fairydean Football Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1907 |
| Ground | Netherdale |
| League | East of Scotland Football League First Division |
| 2009-10 | 7th |
Gala Fairydean F.C. is a football club currently playing in Division 1 of the East of Scotland Football League.
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Founded in 1907 as the result of a split in the Gala Fairydean Rovers club into Gala Fairydean and Gala Rovers, they play their home matches at the Netherdale ground in Galashiels. The ground's main stand was built in 1963 to designs by Peter Womersley, working with engineers Ove Arup. The cantilevered concrete structure is now protected as a Category B listed building.[1]
The club appointed Bryan Templeton and Derek Hancock in the summer of 2006 in a bid to revive the clubs fortunes after a few barren years when the team consisted of mostly Edinburgh based players which resulted in dwindling crowds due to no local interest. The management team promised to go "local" again in a bid to bring the crowds and the glory days back to Netherdale.
With footballing progress in Gala previously being hampered with disputes and political infighting, in the same year, the set up in the town was completely restructured and Gala Football Club was formed. This umbrella organisation, incorporating three senior teams Gala Fairydean, Gala Rovers, Gala Hotspur and the Gala Fairydean Youth and Tweedbank Thistle Junior teams, was formed to encourage all these clubs to work together for the common good.
The appointment of the new management team of Bryan Templeton and Derek Hancock initially resulted in a resurgence for the club as Gala Fairydean progressed from the bottom of the East of Scotland League up to 2nd position in the First Division. Unfortunately on 24 December 2008 the old internal problems returned and Templeton and Hancock resigned citing a lack of backing from the Gala Fairydean Committee.
On 31 December 2008 it was announced that Fraser Lothian, Ally McCulloch, Garry Fraser and Stuart Robertson would head up the new Management team for the Fairydean for the remainder of the campaign, however by the end of the 2008/09 season Gala had sunk to a mid table finish at which point, with some players reported to be unsettled, two of them left for local rivals Selkirk, who play in the East of Scotland Premier Division.
Another mid table season followed in 2009/10. the following season saw Gala Fairydean top the table for a while. However in the end the Fairydean fell away and were beaten on the last day by Eyemouth United, who pipped the Dean for 3rd place. The highlight for the season was the under 19 players who turned out for both the seniors and under 19's. The season will also be rembered for the bad weather where no games played after the 20th November till the 15th January. Even after this only 3 games were played February and March.
In July 2011, the club started ripping out their grass pitch and is replacing it with the first 3g pitch in the Borders. This work is still ongoing and should be finished sometime in November.
This has meant that all league games to date have been away and home cup ties have had to be switched to neutral venue. The highlight of the season this year so far is the Scottish Cup, where Gala Fairydean beat fellow EoS side Hawick Royal Albert 8-1 in the first round (this game was home but played at Selkirk). In the 2nd round Fairydean beat Golspie Sutherland 5-2 (game was home, but played at Hawick Royal Albert FC). Gala were drawn away to SFL division 2 side Airdrie United in the 3rd round where they lost 11-0, however they won notiriety after trending on Twitter.
A full indepth history of Gala Fairydean can be found here on the official website.
Gala Fairydean applied to join the Scottish Football League in 1966, 1994, 2000 and 2002 when various vacancies opened up membership slots, but were unsuccessful on each occasion, the last time losing out to Gretna after the bankruptcy of Airdrieonians. Due to Gretna's liquidation on 3 June 2008, they were thought to be applicants for the SFL however for some reason there was no formal application from Gala Fairydean to enter the SFL and the place subsequently went to Annan Athletic, so Gala remained in the East of Scotland League.
Despite recent rumours of some clubs currently in the Scottish Football League being on the verge of administration and the possibility of League places becoming available in the near future there has been no announcement from Gala Fairydean as to their future intentions or ability to submit an application should the opportunity arise.
In 2007 Gala Football Club were given their Quality Mark from The SFA, and the new look changing rooms were opened by John Collins.
Eastern League Champions: 1921-22.
East of Scotland League Champions: 1960-61, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1968–69, 1988–89, 1990–91.
King Cup Winners: 1911-12, 1912–13, 1914–15, 1929–30, 1946–47, 1960–61, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1988–89.
Scottish Qualifying Cup (South) Winners: 1961-62, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1978–79, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1991-92.
East of Scotland Qualifying Cup Winners: 1926-27, 1946–47, 1961–62, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1990–91, 1994-95.
East of Scotland City Cup Winners: 1960-61, 1987–88.
East of Scotland League Cup Winners: 1968-69, 1993-94.
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