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.