​Berwick Rangers calling on fans to rally round for last home game of season v Broxburn Athletic

​A proposed reorganisation of the fifth-tier league expected to get the green light this week would save the team that finish in the basement spot from relegation to the East of Scotland Football League’s premier division anyway but Rangers aren’t minded to trust to fate and want to keep their destiny in their own hands.

The 15th-placed Northumbrians are on 30 points from 32 fixtures at the moment, so a win against seventh-placed Broxburn would take them out of reach of basement side Gala Fairydean Rovers, currently on 25 from 32 ahead of a visit from second-from-bottom Broomhill this Saturday.

Anything less than that, however, would leave their fate hanging in the balance until their last game of the season, away to ninth-placed Cowdenbeath on Saturday, April 19.

A 0-0 draw away to sixth-placed Albion Rovers in Coatbridge – Rangers’ fourth goalless stalemate since Kevin Haynes took over as manager in January and their sixth clean sheet – put another point between them and third-from-bottom Cumbernauld Colts and Broomhill beneath them, both being on 28 points from 32 games, but that’s still too close for comfort for the new gaffer’s liking and he wants to see them improve their goals-for tally as well as reducing their goals-against one.

“Scoring goals has been an issue – the stats don’t lie – so that is something we will address in the summer,” the 43-year-old told his club’s Facebook page after Saturday’s match.

“As a team, we are creating goal-scoring opportunities and I felt we had two of the best chances at Albion.”

Haynes is now calling on fans to get behind their team at home for one last time this season to encourage them to finish with as much of a flourish as they can manage, saying: “A big crowd to play the 12th man would really help the cause.

“Since I’ve been back at the club, the support at games has been great and I’m looking for that to continue.”

If the rejig currently proposed, an expansion from 18 to 32 teams split into 16-strong east and west divisions, is approved, Berwick and fellow current Lowland League clubs Fairydean, Bo’ness United, East Stirlingshire, Linlithgow Rose, Broxburn, Edinburgh’s Civil Service Strollers, Cowdenbeath, Hearts B, Tranent and Stirling University would be joined in the former by the Highland League’s Brechin City and the EoSFL premier division’s Musselburgh Athletic, Hill of Beath Hawthorn, Jeanfield Swifts and Haddington Athletic, though one of the latter would miss out were Bonnyrigg Rose, currently six points adrift at the bottom of League Two, to be relegated three years after making it into the Scottish Professional Football League as Lowland League champions.

The west division, as initially proposed, would be made up of current Lowland League sides Albion Rovers, Broomhill, Caledonian Braves, Celtic B, Cumbernauld Colts, Gretna 2008 and East Kilbride, joined by newcomers Dalbeattie Star, Auchinleck Talbot, Benburb, Clydebank, Cumnock, Darvel, Glenafton, Pollok and Irvine Meadow XI, though the fact that the last are 13th of 16 teams in the WoSFL’s first division could count against them and see Kilwinning Rangers or Rutherglen Glencairn take their place.