Today we entertain Elgin City (8th) in our 15th league game of the season, and we also have a friendly on 21st November v the very-local-to-us Tweedmouth Rangers.
For our other teams our Reserves beat Stirling Res 3-2, 18 yo MC Ben Sedgwick with a brace and 18 yo AMR Jamie Johnson with the 3rd. That puts us 4th in the Reserve league table.
Our U18’s smashed Newton Stewart Res 6-0, Cameron McGinn with 5 (Five!!!) and John Balde with the 6th. Need to find a way to get Cameron in the team, but currently our 3rd & 4th best players by current ability are Kieran McGrath and Sean Slaven…. Cameron ranks 9th. Sean is a loanee though so I will see what I can do.
Kyle & Sean make League 2 Team of the Week 🙂
And onto our friendly with Tweedmouth. I mentioned a cheeky 4-2-4 – here it is
Trying to bypass the centre of the pitch and get the ball in whenever possible to the front 2. Looking for attacking threat – the centre mids will just shuttle back and forth and spread the ball out to the wings hopefully. Tweedmouth are playing a 4-2-3-1, very attacking as well. Lets see how this pans out
FT Berwick 11 (Eleven) (Balde 2, 50, McGrath 21, 22, Slaven 26, 37, Turner 35, Healy 71, 72, Sutherland 74 Tweedmouth 0
A great start, Balde finishing a lovely move with a back-post tap-in. McGrath made it 2 on 21, sliding in and finishing a low Balde cross. It feels a bit “We’ll score one more goal than you” though :). Within a minute McGrath made it 3 with a sumptuous finish after a long ball over the top. Sean Slaven got the 4th in the 26th – tapping-in a lay-off from Balde after a Dunsmore cross. It was 5 in the 35th, Andy Turner hitting the bottom left corner from the edge of the area. Slaven got his 2nd and Berwick’s 6th in the 37th with a fine header. Carnage! 6-0 at HT, 6 goals from 8 shots on target, 15 shots total. John Balde with 3 assists and a goal 🙂
Lots of Changes at HT. Balde though gets his 2nd with a nice placed shot from about 12 yards in the 50th minute. He’s been an absolute flat-track bully today. Healy made it 8 on 71 – a McIlduff cross controlled and finished well. Healy scored again a minute later, Allan’s shot saved and he tapped home the rebound after more fuckery from Balde, who comes off after the goal to a standing ovation. Tom Sutherland came on and 2 minutes later made it 10, a powerful shot on the turn ricocheting off the underside of the bar. Cameron McGinn got in on the action in the 88th, a lovely flicked header from a deep Healy cross. 11-0 it finished. 11 goals from 16 shots on target out of 30 total shots…. I am so tempted to go with this v Elgin….
Our U18 Beat Bonnyrigg Rose U18 4-1, 16yo Striker James Doolan & 17 yo Striker Paul McCarthy both with a brace.
Our Ressies also won 4-1, beating East Kilbride Res – Lewis Allan with 2, Liam Watt and our 16yo James Doolan scoring again after his brace for the U18’s.
So to our last game of an interesting month – a reallly disappointing loss at home to Peterhead, a really good comeback win v Brechin at Glebe Park & and a crazy 11-0 friendly win.
Elgin (Currently in 7th) have been an interesting opponent in this save – Berwick won 5, Elgin Won 4 (I’ve been involved in 3, W2, L1), and our scouts don’t think their squad isn’t amazing. They still have a prolific scorer (Dean Brotherston) but I’d like to think we have too much about us for them today.
Funnily Elgin are going with almost the same tactic, except 1 up top and a number 10 v 2 up top. Only change from the start of the friendly is Healy for McLaughlin. This should be fun……
HT Berwick 3 (Slaven 11, 36, Turner 43) Elgin City 2 (Thomson 37, Macadie 39)
More drizzle; surprised we’ve not had any postponements yet for water-logging TBH. A quiet start as the tactics butt heads. But it was 1-0 Berwick in the 11th minute, great work from McGrath, crossing to Balde, nodding it back to Slaven who headed home. Balde is again looking very dangerous, he’s all over the pitch. This is a really entertaining tactic – thinking back to Loki Doki managing Bournemouth in last year’s Journeyman. It’s a flood of Amber and Black when we go forward. And Slaven got his secong in the 36th minute, a Dunsmore near-post cross volleyed home. 2-1 in the 37th, Thomson volleying home a poor Faulds headed clearance. 2-2 in the 40th – A Macadie 22 yard thumper. Bloody hell! 3-2 in the 43rd, but to Berwick, Turner scoring a 22 yarder of his own. This tactic is crazy! 3-2 at HT. Not even a half-chance yet there’s been 5 goals!! 6-4 anyone??
FT Berwick 4 (Slaven 11, 36, Turner 43, Nicolson 86) Elgin City 2 (Thomson 37, Macadie 39) Att 495 (47 Away)
Lets see if there’s any more madness? Thinking maybe 1 more in midfield for a Striker to try and win that battle? Barr on for McGrath, back to Centre Mid as a DLP. McLaughlin on for Healy. Elgin are certainly a bit quieter (famous last words) – maybe that extra midfielder is making a difference. And hopefully this seals it – 86th minute – 4-2, a Barr FK tapped in by Harry Nicolson at the far post. Elgin came straight back at us from the kick off, but to no avail, we ran out 4-2 winners.
Cowdenbeath drop points at home to Brechin, meaning we are now 3 points clear at the top. Stenny (Our next opponents) are looking very good though, disposing of a Stranraer side who hadn’t lost in the league since we beat them at the start of September.
So to next time – The start of a massive month with games versus Stenny (A), Stranraer (H) and Cowdenbeath (H) – not losing will be key as we get to halfway through the season. Also STATS!!!!!!!!!!!!! See you then.