Berwick Rangers hoping to stop losing streak going fourth after 5-0 hiding at East Kilbride

Berwick Rangers manager Thomas Scobbie is hoping to end a three-game losing run this Saturday (Pic: Brian Sutherland)

Berwick Rangers manager Thomas Scobbie is hoping this coming Saturday’s East of Scotland Qualifying Cup fourth-round tie away to Crossgates Primrose yields a bit of festive cheer following three league defeats on the bounce.

Saturday’s 5-0 thumping away to Scottish Lowland Football League table-toppers East Kilbride came four days after a 4-1 loss at home to Edinburgh’s Civil Service Strollers and two weeks on from another defeat at Shielfield Park, by 2-1 against Heart of Midlothian B, and Scobbie is now hoping to avoid seeing that losing streak extended to four games in Fife.

His side go into that cup game as favourites to get past their seventh-tier hosts, currently fifth in the East of Scotland Football League’s first division after a 4-0 win away to Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts at the weekend, but the 36-year-old has issued a warning to his players to underestimate the Humbug Park outfit at their peril.

“We will be approaching the game as professionally as we always do,” said Scobbie.

“It’s a chance for us to get a good positive result to take us into the next round and look to take that into both Gala games coming up soon.”

Rangers follow up this weekend’s cup tie near Dunfermline, kicking off at 1pm, with home-and-away league fixtures against Gala Fairydean Rovers on, respectively, Saturday, December 28, and Saturday, January 4, both 3pm kick-offs.

They go into those near-derbies sitting 14th in the table, on 18 points from 19 fixtures, three points and two places better off than their Galashiels rivals and with a game in hand on them.

This winter’s double-header against the Borderers follows another last year, yielding a 3-3 draw at the end of December 2023, four days on from a 2-0 Boxing Day defeat on the road.

Saturday gone saw East Kilbride captain Jack Leitch beat visiting goalkeeper Calum Antell four times – on one minute, 14, 24 and 42, with David Ferguson also getting on the scoresheet on 75, and Scobbie was disappointed both by that scoreline and the performance put in by his side to allow their hosts to hit the handful mark.

“It was a tough game – obviously they are a good side with good players – but I felt the goals we gave away were down to us not doing the basics properly, so I’m really disappointed in that aspect,” he said.

That was Berwick’s fourth defeat on the trot against the South Lanarkshire side following a 7-1 home hiding in October and 1-0 defeats home and away last season, in October 2023 and April this year respectively.