It’s been a while….

It’s been a long time since my last post. Just lacking motivation and football. The club have been
busy, there has been a change of manager and backroom staff since my last post and new faces in
the squad. This post will be short hopefully, just getting back into the swing of it. I’ve been churning
out documentation at work and that takes its toll on any other writing I want to do.
I’ve been offering support where I can. I have renewed player sponsorship. Dougie Horne retired,
and I have continued with sponsoring a keeper, the new arrival Ben Swinton. I have paid for my
advertising board in the stadium and bought another 1000 shares with my £1000 winnings from the
supporter’s club monthly draw. I have also bought tickets for every draw and activity the club have
organised. I won 2 tickets for hospitality at the first home game of the season. I’ve put my name
down on the volunteer list and have been helping at the recent matches.
Trust wise I have been promoting the club and local community partners on social media and I wrote
a few articles for the magazine and asked a few others to write articles. I then spent a bit of time
editing the magazine before it was sent to be published.

Berwick v Hearts.

An easy one to write about. I took the Friday off work (and the following week) to be in Berwick. The
match was called off at short notice. It was a horrible evening though wet and windy.
“This evening’s scheduled clash with Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian has been
cancelled following a number of positive Covid-19 tests at the Edinburgh club’s training base.
Five members of Hearts’ football department are now self-isolating in line with COVID-19 guidelines
after returning positive lateral flow and PCR tests.”

Berwick v Dundee United.

I was still in Berwick for this one, A Wednesday evening kick-off. Duties for the day were ticket
scanning. I was scanning the away fans tickets. A few fans struggling with their phones and the
concept of digital tickets. The drunk fans turning up late and struggling with everything. A
reasonable crowd for the game despite a few Dundee United fans not showing up. The United fans
were expecting to see the first team and they were not told it would essentially be the
youth/reserves until a few days before. “Dundee United last night revealed that they will be sending
a Development Squad to Shielfield Park for the fixture, with their first-team instead in-action behind
closed doors at St Andrews University on the same evening.” The crowd was around 450 so not a
bad turnout.
It was a decent performance from Berwick who won 3-1. Berwick opened the scoring on 41 minutes
as Allan latched onto a long ball over the top to coolly slot beyond the keeper. On 74 minutes, Smith
made it 2-0 to Berwick. Shortly after United scored to pull it back to 2 -1 and with 3 minutes remaining,
a Berwick trialist added the 3rd.

Berwick v North Shields.

A Saturday 2pm kick-off this time. It was announced that there would be a cash gate so I would be
looking after that. It was quite late on that a cash gate was announced, but the numbers meant that
it was feasible. There were a few fans grumbling about this but it’s better to have one even if late on
that to not. There are many covid factors at play that some seem to forget about. There are rules
and regulations that need to be followed. A few comments directed to me about this when oi was
taking the money, a few comments about the cost (£10). And a guy who was incensed that we didn’t
sell beer in the ground and that we also wouldn’t let his mate buy some from the supermarket and
bring it in. That aside it all seemed to go reasonably well.
Another encouraging performance from Berwick who won 3-1. Three first half goals - an own goal,
Graham Taylor and Jamie Pyper. Berwick played against ten men for the second half after a red card
was produced. Lewis Allan missed a penalty early in the second half. The visitors scored a
consolation goal 15 minutes from time.

Berwick v Workington.

Berwick won this 2 – 0 but i never managed to get to this one. It was my 2nd covid vaccination at St
Andrews community hospital in the late morning. No way I would be able to make it to the game in
time. Like the 1st jab I was somewhat floored with muscle pain and headache. I wasn’t as bad as the
1st time but certainly not even worth considering travelling to the game. It was another 2pm kick-off
too so not feasible. My Brother and his wife were down in Berwick though and they took in the
game.

Berwick v Caledonian Braves.

The start of the season and a 1 -0 win for Berwick and 3 valuable points. I travelled down to Berwick
with my dad for this one, His first outing in many months. It was free entry for this game to attract
fans, a little over 400 attending. I would be manning the donation bucket today. One of the hottest
days for a long time.
I would say Berwick dominated the first half. two in swinging corners in quick succession found an
opening at the back post for Mackenzie to nod home a free header to make it 1-0. As the second
half started a middle of the park challenge resulted with the referee producing a straight red for the
Braves player and ending the midfielder’s debut early. The heat raged on, and the second half fell a
little flat. Berwick failed to add to their tally. Smith gathered the ball on the edge of the box and
turned to shoot. He found enough space to drive an effort along the ground which saw the ball come
back off the post. Contender for goal of the season if it had gone in. This is the sort of game we
would have lost or drawn in previous seasons, many times we would lose a late goal. 3 points on the
board and on to the next game.