Back-to-back clean sheets earn two more points for Berwick Rangers as end of season nears

Three home games in the space of a week for manager Kevin Haynes’ team yielded one defeat, by 3-2 against sixth-placed Cumbernauld Colts last Wednesday, and two goalless draws, hosting 15th-placed Stirling University on Saturday and fourth-placed Tranent on Tuesday.

Those results leave Rangers tenth in their 18-team table, on 43 points from 32 fixtures, only two points behind ninth-placed Celtic B with six left to play for.

Their run-in consists of a trip to third-from-bottom Gretna 2008 this coming Saturday and a visit from eighth-placed Bo’ness United seven days later, both 3pm kick-offs.

Berwick head west to Dumfries and Galloway at the weekend looking for a winning double after beating Gretna 3-2 in November’s reverse fixture at Shielfield Park, and the same goes for their season finale, having got the better of Bo’ness on the road at Newtown Park in December by 3-1.

Haynes was satisfied enough with a point against a top-five side in front of a crowd of 433 in midweek, telling his club’s Facebook page: “I thought it was a difficult game.

“Both teams battled well and battled hard and there wasn’t a great deal of football played. It was more about winning second balls.

“Not a classic is probably how I would sum it up.”

The 44-year-old was also grateful enough for Saturday’s point, saying: “It was two teams that looked really, really tired, if I’m honest.

“I thought we started the game pretty well. For 20 to 25 minutes we were good and then I just thought we looked sapped after that.

“It looked like it had 0-0 written all over it.

“There were positives there. We kept a clean sheet and we picked up a point, and that’s a clean sheet and a point we didn’t get during the week.

“We’re tired. There’ve been a lot of games in a short space of time and that goes back to games being called off in the winter coupled with the illnesses and injuries we’re carrying.

“We can only do what we can do. We just need to get through it.”

Saturday’s game also saw new recruit Kieran Moyles make his debut at centre-back after arriving on loan until the end of the season from fifth-tier rivals Gala Fairydean Rovers and Haynes was impressed by how quickly the 24-year-old, formerly at Gretna and Broxburn Athletic, settled in.

“I thought he did really well,” said his new gaffer. “I thought he marshalled the defence pretty well.

“It looked like he’d been here for two years the way that he spoke and organised, and he showed the composure that he’s got and his good passing ability.

“All in all, it was a very good debut for him.”

On target for Berwick during their second 3-2 loss to Cumbernauld of the season last week, following one by the same scoreline on the road in August’s reverse fixture, were Taylor Hendry on 62 minutes and Harry Wright on 70.

Netting in the other direction were Thomas Horn on nine minutes, Daniel Hatfield on 36 and Josh Jack on 84.