Updates

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Berwick Rangers XI 4-4 Hearts XI

Grant McNicoll's Testimonial

Sunday saw the testimonial of Grant McNicoll, in honour of ten years service to the club. Gary McKay put together a decent Hearts Legends side to face Grant's own team.

It was good to see some old faces back in Berwick shirts - Marc Anthony, Kevin Haynes, Ross Godrey, Davie Watt, Murray Hunter, Spider Ramsey, Colin Campbell, Gary O'Connor (!) and Neil Oliver to name a few (the full list is in the post below).

The scorers were Davie Watt, Marc Anthony, Kevin Haynes and Grant McNicoll came off the bench to score a rather dubious looking penalty! And at 4-3 Hearts were awarded a penalty, which McNicoll converted after swapping shirts with John Robertson (below).


All-in-all it was a decent game, it is just a pity there wasn't more of a turn out for Grant.

Danny Swanson

There was a good article in the Scotsman yesterday:

http://news.scotsman.com/health/Danny-Swanson-The-football-39genius39.3948373.jp

Grant McNicoll Testimonial

This Sunday sees the long awaited testimonial for Grant McNicoll. He has put together a Berwick side made up of players he has played with over the past few years to face a Hearts XI, which has been rounded up by Gary McKay.

Amongst others, the Berwick XI will feature: Gary O’CONNOR, Ross GODFREY, Keith McNICOLL, Colin CAMPBELL, Neil BENNETT, Mark BRADLEY, Robbie HORN, Dale GRAY, Murray McDOWELL, Martin NEIL, Gordon FORREST, Darren SMITH, Murray HUNTER, Paul FORRESTER, Gary WOOD, Kevin HAYNES, Kevin GORDON, David MURIE, Kevin McLEISH, Davie WATT, Marc ANTHONY, Michael McDERMOTT and Alan NEILL

And the Hearts team will be made up of: Gary MACKAY, John ROBERTSON, Paul RITCHIE, Wayne FOSTER, Walter KIDD, Dave MacPHERSON, Henry SMITH, Scott LEITCH, Tosh McKINLAY, Jose QUITONGO, Stevie FULTON, Darren JACKSON, Neil IRVINE, Jimmy SANDISON, Scott CRABBE, Brian HAMILTON, Kenny BLACK, Stuart CALLAGHAN and Brian McNAUGHTON

Adults £7, concessions £3 - advanced tickets are available from The Pilot Inn.
Programme available on the day, prices £2.

Please try and make it along if you can - Grant deserves a decent turn out.

Michael Renwick

We have seen a slight improvement in the last month or so at Berwick, but despite this most fans would still like to see the back of Michael Renwick. Last month I ran poll asking you how long you'd give Renwick, 44 of you voted and 63% of you said that the BRFC Board should sack him right now!

A few of you (20%) said you would give him the summer to get a squad together to make a challenge for the Third Division title, but if we didn't start the season well that would be the end for Renwick. The remainder of the people voting said that they would be happy to give him next season or even longer.

I do think that some of the comments levelled at the guy on P&B have been a bit strong, but I can understand why people want him out. At the time, the appointment seemed a little bit mis-guided and a big risk.

One thing that sticks in my mind when I see all the critisism of Renwick is something which happened nearly ten years ago. Paul Smith had been in the hot seat for over a year and despite some big name signings (such as Marc Anthony and Kevin Magee), we had a dreadful start to the season which saw us second bottom at the end of September 1999.

There were a few of us who organised a protest at an away game at Forfar, which involved a 'SMITH OUT' banner and we called for Jamie Curle to give him the bullet. But Jamie stuck with his rookie manager and Paul Smith ended up proving us wrong with a promotion in April 2000. He went on to be the third most successful Berwick manager, enjoying some good Second Division campaigns and cup games against Rangers, Falkirk and Hearts.

It just makes me hope that if we are going to keep Michael Renwick on until next season, he proves us all very wrong.

BBC Storyline

We were featured on BBC Storyline this week. It is available to view on the BBC's iPlayer until Monday (our bit is about 25 minutes into the programme) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b009ncgv.shtml?q=english&start=1&scope=iplayersearch&version_pid=b009ncft

Back from Barca

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates in the last couple of weeks. I have been away to Barcelona for the past week or so, missing the Brechin game (thankfully) in the process.

Seems like it was quite a tanking once again, check out the thread on P&B, things aren't getting any easier for Michael Renwick. I sat in a pub on La Ramblas watching the scores roll in on Sky Sports and I wasn't at all suprised it ended 5-0, I was suprised that the result didn't relegate us. That particular delight has been reserved for this Saturday, where anything less than 3 points against Peterhead would relegate us.

Barca was good though, I took in FC Barcelona's game against Real Valladolid at the Neu Camp. Tickets were available right up until kick off and at 48 euros they for a seat behind the goal, I didn't think it was too expensive. Nearly 60,000 catalans turned up to watch an entertaining game in the sun, with Henry, Eto'o, Zambrotta and Bojan standing out in a 4-1 win.

Watching the Spanish version of Match of the Day later that night showed that Real Villadolid's goal was never a penalty and one of Barca's goals was offside. From our view both goals looked good - such was the distance from the pitch.

A game and a good day, The Neu Camp certainly beats the likes of Central Park.

Cowdenbeath vs Berwick Rangers

It is D-Day at Central Park tomorrow, nothing less than a win will do to fend off our inevitable relegation. The maths are quite simple now, if we lose to Cowdenbeath and Queen's Park win at Brechin, we are down. That said, the odds are probably in our favour as I would fancy Brechin to beat Queen's if we fail to take anything from Cowden.


Tuesday night's thriller at Shielfield will have taken a lot out of both sets of players. The fitter squad of players will win this game, sadly I don't think that will be us.

The main story this week has been the apparent loss of Jordan Smith, who has seemingly joined Stenny. I can only assume that this is a pre-contract agreement and he will be with us for the remainder of the season.

In a quite perverse way I am quite looking forward to this game - Cowdenbeath away has always been one of my favourite fixtures. There is quite a large group of us travelling up who will be intent on enjoying the day despite the fact we will could leave Fife on Saturday teatime as the Third Division's newest team.

My predictions: Cowdenbeath 2-0 Berwick Rangers; Brechin City 2-1 Queen's Park

Weather: Cloudy, 8 degrees.
Bluesq: Cowdenbeath 4/7, Draw 13/5, Berwick 4/1