i went to pick up my dad and head off down the road for this one. It’s about a 30 minutes drive from my folks house so the easiest away game to get to. The rain had eased off and the sky was sunny. Not 30 minutes down the road it wasn’t! Rain sweeping in waves and gale force winds to add to the misery. We waited in the car for 10 minutes for the rain to stop and we made a break for it. We had an interesting time getting in. My dad is a consession so he went to the concession turnstile, I went to the regular one. I could see my dad through the ticket window at the other side. It was one booth with a window on either side. I paid and asked the girl to take the money for my dad. She said she couldn’t he was a consession and had to be paid at the consession turnstile...so I gave her the money to pass to my dad, who gave it back to pay for his ticket..... this seemed to satisfy her. We then bought some halftime draw tickets and then off for some tea. The tea was ok, my dad is a bovril man. The pies were awful. Not the worst thing I have had at a sporting event (the burger st the Fife Flyers ice arena still holds this title) but it wasn’t too pleasant. The pie was tepid on the outside with a cold middle, lovely. We found our “seats” and watched the rain sweep in.

it was my job to write the match report for this game. my second one now, the first was the cup game against Motherwell at the start of the season.

St Andrews Berwick Rangers Supporters recently purchased 50 raffle tickets for the clubs raffle. Unfortunately we were not successful in winning any prizes. Not even the quality socket set.... the aim of course was to donate money to the club, Rather than win a prize!

St Andrews Berwick Rangers Supporters are delighted to contribute £200 towards the football clubs transfer fund. A cheque for £3000 was presented to the club Chairman from the Supporters Trust with an additional cheque of £400 of funds raised by The Trust, half of which was from St Andrews Berwick Rangers Supporters.

The Trust AGM and the Elgin game were scheduled for today, Sadly the game was a victim of the weather. That’s the 3rd game now that has been posponed because of a frozen pitch. An appeal went out for volunteers to help shift the snow and ice, the volunteers worked tirelessly to shift the snow and ice and we thank them for that, Sadly the game was still called off despite their efforts. It’s annoying for me as it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be able to attend the rescheduled midweek fixtures, it’s at least a 2hr drive and if I’m leaving work and hitting the Edinburgh bypass and the traffic there at peak time it’s even longer. It would also mean I’ll be getting back home just before midnight, not ideal with work the next day. I have done it a couple of times in the summer for pre season friendlies, it’s quite different driving in the summer than the freezing cold dark rainy months. It does give me an extra bit of insight into the players, it’s similar for quite a few of them and must be tough.

i had planned to leave for Berwick on the Friday afternoon with Ruth and Pippa but the snow was getting pretty heavy and I decided not to travel and leave it until the Saturday morning. Later I saw the social media appeal and thought I could have helped, but it was a bit too late by then. I followed the progress and it seemed likely that the game would be posponed so the decision was taken to travel down on the Saturday morning. We were going to stay in Berwick from the Friday to the Sunday but with the likelyhood of the game being off it was decided that I would go down by myself and come back on the Saturday whether the game was on or not. So it was up at 7am and put defrosting the car for the journey to Berwick. I did manage a pit stop on the way down at the Cedar Cafe, Breakfast in a cafe that was empty apart from the staff.

Not much to say really! The board were all voted back on and in the positions that they held, That also included me as member number ten. The Trust presented a cheque for £3000 to Len Eyre (Club chairman) and Robbie Horn (Club manager) to help with the transfer budget for this January transfer window. Another cheque for £400 was also handed over for additional funds, £200 of this was donated by St Andrews Berwick Rangers Supporters. I also “won” the silent auction for a signed shirt from 2006. The money from that is going to B.A.R.K (Berwick Animal Rescue Kennels) who are the affiliate charity of the club this season.
I really enjoyed the question session with Robbie Horn and Len Eyre, it was open and honest with some informative answers regarding players and the club. It’s tough to run any kind of business, A part time football club is no exception. It’s all well and good some fans grumbling on Facebook, twitter etc but they seem to lose sight of the fact that it is part time and a lot of people volunteer their time to help. I myself have grumbled about certain things and lost sight of this, hopefully I have a more positive attitude now* regarding such things. I’ve helped out in the past and will again in the future. Next week for me it’s the match report at the Cowdenbeath game and the following week recording the Clyde game and the “Eric Tait interviews” (sounds like a BBC archive collection....).
* now starting today....

well what to say, the bookies were right. Berwick had their chances but couldn’t punish Annan unlike the way they punished us. 2 defensive errors and it was game over. So frustrating to watch and another defeat. It’s lucky the 3 teams below in the league also lost to keep the gap but we are very much riding our luck in that respect. Hopes for the new manager and a turnaround were high and we are not in a bad position, especially compared to last year but we are lucky that other teams are performing poorly. I doubt that Berwick will ever win the league, playoffs at some stage in the future perhaps but there is a lack of funds to attract better players. Any better players we do attract are usually gone within a season. Still I find it more enjoyable that the higher leagues, it’s still fun and easily accessible, even away games are easy to get to and get parked, this is a great thing for my 80 year old dad. At this particular game I also had the privilege of filming the first half, this is in preparation for me filming the Clyde game in a few weeks when the regular cameraman is away. It’s a valuable training resource for the manager and highlights are put on the clubs website for fans to watch. It’s been very popular, especially with fans who live further afield. It’s enough to keep them interested in the club. I also got to meet the manager Robbie Horn and shake his hand as part of the filming. Eric Tait the club legend interviews the manager after every home game and this is filmed and put on the website. The filming is a great way for the manager to speak to the fans and let them know his thoughts, it keeps the fans engaged with the manager and club. Roll on next week, it’s Elgin at home and I’m not optimistic about getting a result.

i didn’t think I would make this game. Ruth is taking part in the great winter run in Edinburgh, her turn to go out on a Saturday. Luckily it turns out it’s in the morning so I’ll drive us down to Edinburgh (for 8:30am, sigh) Ruth can run and I’ll take Pippa for a walk. It should all be done by lunchtime and off down to Berwick for the game. I have high hopes for this game, I don’t know why though. We are still lacking a striker and have lost a good midfielder who was on loan from Hearts. We have signed another midfielder from the lower leagues and by all accounts he’s a decent player but we are still short upfront. Berwick are 2-1 to win this game so the bookies don’t expect a win, lets see shall we.....

well it was a bloody cold game! We arrived early to get parked so my dad didn’t need to walk far. We stood watching the kids football in the small pitches near turnstile 3 of the West stand. This is where the away fans were to go according to the match preview and a tweet this morning. Well after about 20 minutes i wandered around to the home turnstile and i was told we had to go in there! Good start. There was never any intention of opening turnstile 3 apparently. In we went and straight for a cup of tea.

Well we lost 2-0. We played reasonably well again but my oh my are we in desperate need for a striker. The guys sitting behind us were very vocal about this. To be fair it is pretty apparent that we are in desperate need. I had thought that Robbie Horn would have had a couple lined up ready to play as soon as the January transfer window opened. But we have no new signings and now 2 away defeats under our belt where I’m convinced a striker would have netted us at least 3 points from those games if not 6.

more pictures can be found at http://www.berwickranger.com/away-games.html

Well it’s Stirling Away tomorrow at Forthbank Stadium. I’ve never been before and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be going with my dad and Gordon will be coming too. My brother might also come along. Now the biggest problem is whether on not it will actually be on, It’s been raining solidly for the last 2 days. It is an artificial pitch so it should be ok but if the temperature drops it could be frozen. Fingers crossed. As for the actual game and result who knows. Berwick have had a it of a rollercoaster season, a few lucky sneaky wins and draws have given us a reasonable amount of points and Robbie Horn has done well with this squad, they are playing with more conviction than I have seen for a while. Still changes are to be made. Rutherford has gone, Scullion has gone and it’s likely Thomson will be off too. There are also rumours that McKenna is being linked with a move to Arbroath. 3 loan players who are regulars in the squad are likely to move on at the end of January. It might be a case of holding on until the summer to build the squad that Robbie wants, but with very little money for players wages it will be difficult. Luckily Cowdenbeath have had a terrible season and we have a decent gap between us and them, with Edinburgh and Clye in-between. I’m still hoping for a win against Stirling.

i had high hopes for this game. With the disappointment of the two previous home games cancelled due to frost I was in high hopes that this would be a Berwick Victory. I had been to the Clyde game on the 23rd of December and that resulted in a 0-0 draw. Clyde and Edinburgh are the teams we need to beat. We cannot afford to lose points to the team below us. Although we are in a far better position than this time last season we have had a few lucky results to boost us along. I was lucky enough to get a lift from Berwick to Edinburgh for this game, Thanks to Ian Beresford for that. It was a odd game, Berwick played pretty well and the score line was flattering to Edinburgh. Still a 3-0 loss is a 3-0 loss...... A moment of ill judgment with a header back to the keeper lead to the second goal and up to that point we were still in with a chance, Again the lack of a recognised striker has come back to haunt us. We sent plenty of good balls into the box but with nobody in position or with a good first touch we are seriously missing out.