Away to Caledonian Braves.

It's a visit to Caledonian Braves in Strathclyde Country Park that's next for me and my dad (writing this on the Friday) I'm fully expecting a win here. We have no chance of winning the league but we need to put points on the board. It's a young squad that we have and they are playing reasonably well together but we are just that little bit short. There's only so many games we can narrowly miss out on. We need to take charge and gather points.
We have another few midweek games coming up too that break the flow somewhat but with some empty Saturdays in the calendar (I'm not quite sure how the fixtures are arranged). I miss the regular Saturday games, I can't get to midweek games easily but I will be able to make the Kelty Hearts cup game on the 19th of November, I'll take my dad to that and probably my friend Gordon too.

Arrival.

As per usual we arrived in plenty of time and today’s lunch provided by Big Al’s diner. The burger an in the car park. The food was alright and the guy serving asked me to keep an eye on the place and make sure nothing burns as he had to nip to the toilet....
We sat in the car eating lunch and watched an episode of still game on the screen in the car. Then into the “stadium” for the game. It’s a soulless stadium with the constant noise of the motorway behind the stand(s). It felt like the sort of place you turn up to for a kids football birthday party. I counted around 60 fans and around 40 of them were Berwick fans. There were a few others in the ground, cameraman etc. It was quiet and a quite a dull place to visit in the middle of nowhere. The two small stands were decent though. It’s a difficult task to establish yourself as a football team in that area and attract fans. There’s a lot of competition with Motherwell and and Hamilton close by and the attraction of the Glasgow teams. There’s also a number of Junior teams in towns like Bellshill that you have to compete with. A tough thing to do but best wishes to them. Let’s hope they can build a better fan experience as they grow.

The game.

This section is getting harder to write as the weeks go on. I really should leave it to later in the week but it may never get done then.

The performance in the first half from both teams saw them trot off to the dressing room 0-0. There was a delay to kick off of about 5mins but I have no idea why. Neither team looked like they were at their best and I though it would be one of those games that 1 goal would win it.

The second half saw us score a cracking free kick. Straight to the top right hand corner. Braves equalised with a good goal from the edge of the box, we gave the player too much room though. We went up 2-1 after their defender nodded a pass back over the top of the keeper who was coming out to gather it. It looked like it was going in but Lewis Barr was there to guide it home. There was also a shout for a penalty for Berwick in the second half but it wasn’t given.
The heavens opened and the rain poured down. The floodlights casting shadows and making it difficult to see, they went the best but the rain didn’t help matters. We were stuck in our own half for the last 5 minutes plus what seemed like and awful lot of extra time (even a minute seems like 10 when you are pushed back defending). This is when Braves scored. We took our eye off the ball and concentration dropped. It was pretty much the last kick of the ball that the Braves put home to end the game 2-2.

We did score a cracking free kick but we were gifted the second and again unable to hold on to the end to secure 3 points. Next up away to Spartans on Friday night. It’s looking unlikely I’ll be at that one.