Postponment

What a thing, sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon. Just had a look at teletex and it appears that we are the only casualty to the weather. Has it been wetter here than anywhere else? Are we now having problems with what was a normally reliable Shielfield pitch, it might seem so. Either way the net result is a wasted Saturday unfortunately.

Just watched a very sterile Manchester City on Sky, money hasn't solved their problems that's for sure. Then over to St Mirren's brand new stadium in Paisley on Setanta. That appears to be the answer they were looking for. What are we looking for at Berwick. Well a pitch we can play football on would be a good start, but I'm not going to be too hard, Berwick may have been the wettest place in the country recently!

Communication

Been thinking today about how I'd like to see things progressing as we enter what I certainly hope will be a new period of glasnost. There can be few things more important things to a clubs fans than the dissemination of news from their football club, and fans of our club are no different.
Fans need to be kept informed of goings on at their club, and in this age of "instant" information expectations are not unreasonably high. Now, I have no reason to think that this will not happen at our club and indeed Chairman Brian Porteous will be talking on the Radio Borders sports show tonight, a good start.
But, please, lets make sure it continues, I know there is much to be done but the appointment of someone to be responsible for PR must come high on the list. In my day job I'm involved with CRM, customer relationship management, something that all forward thinking organisations should be involved in.

Next up Shire

Still taking in the changes at our club. I think now is a real chance to influence positive change and give the people that really matter in the game, the fans, an opportunity to play a meaningful part. Living in a country as we do built on democracy its always amused me that the world of football is based on something entirely different. Can you feel the wind of change?

As I normally do at this time of the week, or at least am getting back into the habit of doing, I look towards Saturdays game. The score thus far stands at one win each against the Shire, how about this time? I 've always thought that Shire are one of the few teams that people don't have a real grudge against and in the "old days" used to really enjoy a trip to Firs Park and their social club. Unfortunately for travelling fans now neither exists although as far as I know the ground is still there.

After four wins and three defeats we could do to even that up on Saturday. No matter, biggest decision before then is where to go for a pre match pint!

First day of the rest of our lives, well, football lives anyway!

Well, here we are, the first day of the "new" BRFC. How's it going to go? Well, this writer certainly hopes, but let no one underestimate the volume of work that lies ahead. And remember there is going to be work for all that care about the club.
As the whole thing rolls out we can watch with interest and hopefully make a meaningful contribution as the club is brought back under the community banner.

Cup Fever hits town and a trip to hell follows

City Cup that is!

Whilst Shire entertain Dundee United on Sunday in the Scottish Cup we have to make do with Border club Selkirk in the semi final tomorrow. I know very little about Selkirk so will focus on Cowden, weather permitting.

After the abomination that was Albion Rovers in the proper cup we host the 'Souters' in a match that should have been played last season. Had it been played last season or even pre-season for that matter a place in the final would have been a fantastic achievement as we were dire, but four wins on the belt end and the cup might be coming south again.

It will all depend what team the gaffer puts out, bearing in mind a trip to Cowden on Tuesday night with vital league points at stake. It is said that league points are more important 'the bread and butter' to coin the well known phrase but another trophy in the cabinet would not go amiss either. In fact had it been any other team on Tuesday then i would just say go for it and to hell with the points but a trip to hell and a return of three points would be priceless.

The rivalry with 'The Blue Brazil' over recent seasons has given us as close to a derby rival as we could hope for (although they have other more hated closer rivals) and has certainly made the announcement of fixtures anticipated. Some of the younger fans seem to think it is a rivalry only recently started but it goes way back to the late 70's early 80's when Maggie Thatcher tore the heart out of Fife closing the mines and shipyards, a fact that the Berwick supporters taunted their Fife counterparts with. Whilst it was deemed 'banter' by the Berwick fans, the Cowden support quite naturally took offence and the hatred was born.

Although during the 90's and 00's things were quiet on the terraces mainly due to the fact that Cowden were crap and we always had a sizable support, tensions were always simmering and when Cowden had a bit of success, leading to more fans following them, then the rivalry started again.

Back to Saturday and a mention that it is a 2pm kick off with the match going straight to penalties, if level after ninety minutes.

Thermals will be required for the ducket faithful as it promises to be a cauld yin.