An early start for me, there’s a Trust meeting at 11am so I’ll need to leave about 8am. I’ll no doubt leave earlier. My dad won’t be with me for this one, it’s too early a start for him. I’ll take him to the Spartans away game on Tuesday night though (although I’m not looking forward to getting over the Queensferry crossing and into Edinburgh at that time of evening). I’ll go to Shielfield after the Trust meeting and see if there are any jobs that the club need help with, there’s always something.

We are desperate for points on the board. Cumbernauld Colts don’t sound like a difficult team but they will be, they all are. It may be a case that teams raise their game against Berwick, the new boys to the league but we need to get over this and raise our game. Stupid mistakes have been costing us games and we need to be more careful. We also need to take a shot on goal when the opportunity arises. It’s becoming a bit of a chore now and I want a win. I’ve had a heavy cold this week and I want something to lift my spirits.

I arrived in plenty of time for the Trust meeting. The Queensferry crossing as slow and as busy as usual. I arrived and grabbed a McMuffing thing for breakfast. The Trust meeting went well. Difficult times at the club and we need to support them. Next stop the supermarket to buy flowers for the ladies at the club, a thank you for their support. A quick chat with some folk at the club and the. selling programs my task for the afternoon.

This bit becomes more difficult to write, a huge part being that I usually write it when I get home (currently 8pm) and I’m tired after a long day and a 2+hr drive. But the danger is leaving it to Sunday and t might not get done at all...

We started well and went 1-0 up. Happy days but the dread soon set in when we gave away a penalty. Cumbernauld missed the penalty blazing it high over the bar and relief set in, a bit of luck our way for a change. We ended the half 1-0.
Second half saw us going 2-0 up, hurrah, the road to victory etc. This was soon cut short when Cumbernauld slotted one home. Our keeper looked like he had it but it went in (looked like he had it to me but I’ll watch the highlights). Then in the death of the game Cumbernauld score again. 2-2. 2 points chucked away. Lack of concentration coming back to haunt us. It’s looking like we need to score 3 or 4 goals to win a game.

So it’s off to East Kilbride, a bit of a detour for this one as my dad and I are going to take my brother and his wife. I think it’s more about spending time as a family than it is about the football. My brother and his wife were there last season for the Cove game at Shielfield and at Hampden when we were on the end of a 7-1 drubbing and my brother was there for this seasons Betfred cup game at Livingston. Still a day out and we will go for dinner afterwards.

I need to get to games early to get a parking space close to the ground so my dad can manage. It’s usually not a problem but it is a bit of a concern. There’s not much information out there on accessible parking at football grounds. It seems to be a case of already knowing before you go.

As for the game I’m not expecting a victory, as sad as that seems, I believe East Kilbride will be too strong for us. I hope that we win but i wouldn’t put money on it.

I headed off to my brothers and from there he drove to the game. We arrived in plenty of time as usual and parked in the carpark at the club. I was expecting a battle after reading that the carpark was for players and officials only but it was half empty and nobody said a thing. The gate was open so we paid and bought some draw tickets, a program and a bacon roll and tea. The to take our “seat” in the stand. The seats are backless and hard but we had the back row so my dad could sit against the wall and I folded up my hoodie so he could sit on it.

We started with a changed lineup from Saturday’s disappointing cup game against Tranent. And boom 1 up in about a minute. Happy days and we had a good number of chances and were playing ok. East Kilbride didn’t look like they were to be feared. About a minute before the end of the half East Kilbride scored after about 10 minutes of pressure ending the half at 1-1. The second half saw us pinned in our own half from the start. We lost our way and some errors saw us 3-1 down and out of it. We pulled back a goal to make it 3-2 it there seemed to be no sense of urgency to bring it level. We had our chances but squandered them. Too many passes when we should had had a go. A frustrating game to watch. Yaw Osei came on as a second half sub with about 20 minutes to go and was bloody awful. He had about 2 touches and was all over the place, I was expecting much better from him. The loan player from Rangers looked decent though, putting in some good passes and having decent control. Next up Cumbernauld Colts. There’s a trust meeting at 11am before that game so I’ll need to leave about 8am. The though of an 8am start is quite unappealing at the moment and my dad probably won’t go as it will be a bit too long a day for him. I might take him to the midweek Spartans game though.

So up next is Tranent juniors, a tough team to beat. Berwick are in the Lowland league, it’s where we are and we’ve not started well but this is a cup game and I’m looking for a decent cup run here but Tranent will be no pushover.

We seem to be a team that are beating ourselves at the moment, how many penalties can we give away this season? How many chances will we miss? Here’s hoping we can get it together enough to be competitive, a bit more concentration and we would be a decent team for this level. We are not getting out of the lowland league this season I’m sure of that, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Back to Tranent and a tough team to beat. They have already beaten Gala 6-0 away in the Football Nation Qualifying Cup this season. We’ve just drawn 2-2 with Gala away. Various factors are involved but it does give some indication that Tranent are a capable side. They are also top of their division, 5 played, 4 wins 1 draw.

I’ll be taking my dad to this game and I contacted Tranent via twitter to ask about seating. My Dad is 82 next Tuesday and needs to sit down. Tranent have a 49 seat stand so I’ll be down early to secure a seat. It’s a 2:30pm kick-off so I better not forget that. I’ve had a look on google maps and street view for the ground but it’s quite out of date, the ground has had some development since the last map update.
Tranent’s website is fairly out of date too but the person on twitter responded quickly which was very decent of them.
It will be about an hour and a half travel time and I’ll aim to get there around half one, I'll need to find somewhere my dad can get his lunch, perhaps a picnic for this one.....

Well it was a trip around the houses, but after a few detours I found it. I got parked in the club carpark. I was concerned about getting parked close for my dad but it was fine. Berwick had in their match preview that the club carpark was out of action due to building work but there were several spaces. I helped one of the volunteers with a spot of litter picking. It was quite a blustery day and he was having difficulties. I held the bag wheelie he picked litter. Turns out he was the turnstile operator (or whatever you call somebody who takes the money with no turnstile). We had a chat and then I bought 10 halftime draw tickets, a bit of cash towards Tranent’s pot of money to buy floodlights. Admission was £6 and £3 so I paid with a tenner and asked him to chuck the extra £1 into the club fund. He said he would give a halftime draw ticket to a regular with a disability with the extra £1.

Next stop the toilet, I must say it was the worst toilet I’ve seen in a very very long time. Absolute animal must have been in there beforehand...... it was then a walk around the pitch to get to the seats.

Well, I started writing this blog on Thursday. My usual well Tranent seem a decent team, tough to beat etc but we beat ourself again. This will be another short game section.
Tranent were there for the taking. The team seem to have taken a backward step again. Tranent score first with yes, you guessed it an bloody penalty. We equalised with a penalty, a poorly struck shot but luckily it went in. The half ended 1-1. We had our chances and plenty of opportunities to shoot but we don’t take them. Some dreadful passing added a bit of spice to the half too.
Second half saw Tranent take the lead as a shot was flapped into the net by the keeper. He really should have held it. Tranent were playing better now and Berwick became a bit more lacklustre like my blog posts. I can’t be bothered writing much more. The second half was poor, short passes, long passes, trying to walk the ball into the net. Poor corners, poor free kicks it had the lot. We face East Kilbride away on Saturday. I’ll take my dad to that but I don’t imagine we will came away with any points.