Montrose away.

It’s Montrose away on Saturday and I’m under no illusion that we will get a win here. A draw here would be a great result. Montrose are sitting at the top of the table with Peterhead close behind. Montrose have just played Cowdenbeath on Tuesday night and comfortably taken the 3 points. It’s another game chalked off the list and helps keep the gap between us and them. We are also currently on the same points as Edinburgh City with 2 games in hand over them. Social media is awash (if the half dozen or so folk who seem to comment can be classed as “awash”) with the usual comments that surround Berwick at this time of year. Has the manger done enough etc. But Berwick is as Berwick is. It’s difficult to attract players to the club, the geographic location has it’s impact but the low wages don’t help either. There also seems to be the boardroom fighting that is mentioned on social media at this time of year, sad if true but nothing is going to change. No Russian billionaire is coming in. How much money would the club need? (we are £90k in debt). Would £100k be enough? Well that would just clear the debt. So £150k? To give an extra bit to build on? Who has that lying about. No businessman will invest that. You would need to have a lot of cash so that it’s nothing to you. That’s not going to happen to a small town football team. I guess that there is always going to be a team in this position and unfortunately it’s Berwick.

My tuppence worth on the manager.

IIn my opinion Robbie has done a good job as manager. The squad he inherited appeared out of balance. We seemed to have at least 2 squads worth of defenders and nearly all the midfielders seemed to be defensive. At one point last summer I wasn’t even confident Berwick would have enough player signed to field a full team! It will take time to adjust and there will be bumps along the way. Everybody is a critic but somehow they seem to lose sight of the fact that it’s a part time club with part time players and with a part time manager (the previous manager was full time don’t forget). Yes we need a couple of strikers for next season, I’m fairly sure Robbie is aware of that but it’s difficult to find them with wages comparable to some of the junior league teams. The major attraction I guess is that Berwick are in the “proper football league” but what do I know.

I have heard suggestions that we should be getting players from the leagues above. I would rather see younger lads or lads hungry to play at a higher level than the bench warmers coming from further up. I’m not saying they are all like that but I think a better drive and attitude will be gained from players “stepping up”. I suggested that Robbie’s experience in the lower leagues might give him some leads on decent lads wanting to prove themself. But again what do I know.

Robbie hasn’t had a full year to put his squad together and with the playing budget I don’t know what players will be coming. Loan players are always an option but they have to be decent. The problem with decent loan players is that they will generally be off again in January leaving a hole in the team to be filled and a squad to gel together.

and while I’m here.....

the ten team league is just a nightmare. In all leagues there are good teams, not so good and poor. In a ten team league it’s a stark contrast. Playing each other 4 times just means the strong teams get more points. There is no middle ground, no safe solid mid table. Yo can beat Montrose or Peterhead but that’s alright there’s another 3 goes for them to take the points off of you. There’s no teams at roughly the same level for you to battle with and have a comfortable season It’s either playoffs for promotion or playoffs for the drop. Constant pressure where mistakes are very costly. If the proposal to add 2 colt teams to the league goes ahead it will add a further headache to the whole setup.