Berwick Rangers manager Kevin Haynes hits out at side’s ‘poor’ performance after second defeat in four days

​Manager Kevin Haynes’ Northumbrians are down from 12th to 13th, on four points from eight fixtures, after losing out by 2-1 hosting the table-topping East Lothian outfit on Saturday and by the same scoreline on the road in Edinburgh on Tuesday, extending their losing streak in the league to four fixtures.

Greg Binnie put Rangers in front at Shielfield Park at the weekend on 24 minutes but they were unable to hang on to that lead to halt their visitors’ 100% start to the season, with Nick Aitchison heading past home No 1 Calum Antell four minutes later and Harry Girdwood doubling their advantage just past the hour mark to make it seven wins out of seven.

Rangers’ scorer at the capital’s Christie Gillies Park in midweek was Grant Leitch, getting one back on 76 minutes after Tom Findlay and Alie Faye had put seventh-placed Strollers 2-0 up with goals beyond visiting keeper Owen Hayward one minute in and 22 minutes later.

Next up for Rangers is a visit from 11th-placed Musselburgh Athletic this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm, their first competitive meeting since a 1-0 third-round South Region Challenge Cup defeat on the road in East Lothian back in October 2023.

Haynes was unhappy about the account his side gave of themselves against Strollers, telling their Facebook page afterwards: “It was poor.

“It was difficult because we made it difficult.

“We could make excuses about injuries and that’s a fact – we had nine guys out tonight – but we still had 14 available to us that needed to do better than what they did.

“The hardest thing you can do against Civil Service is give them a lead as they’re so defensively sound and organised.

“To give away a goal to an unmarked runner into the box after 20 seconds and just being that slow to start the game means that ultimately we’re sitting here with the points that we deserve from today’s performance.

“There aren’t any positives to take from that.

“It was an improved performance in the second half but we’d given ourselves too much to do. Our mountain was too big to climb at that stage.

“What’s the point in being improved in the second half? We should have been at that level from the start of the first half.

“We’re just nowhere near it at the moment. With four points from eight games, if the chairman had been standing outside there and wanted to sack me, that would have been justified because of our points return.

“That’s where we are just now and hopefully we’ll start getting boys back and start being able to change the side. There are guys in there that are dead on their feet after playing four games in ten days and that’s not sustainable. They need helping with fresh legs but our hands are tied at the minute.

“We were nine down today after losing three players from Saturday’s fixture and today it looks like we’re going to lose another two. I don’t think there’s any team in this league that would be able to withstand having 11 guys out. That’s just where we are unfortunately.”

The 45-year-old had been happier about his side’s showing three days prior, saying: “I thought it was fairly even.

“Their second goal was a great goal from their perspective. They worked it down the side of the pitch and it was a good cut-back and a great finish to win them the game.

“We had our own chances. Right after that, we really should have been at 2-2 when Kyle Somers missed a glorious chance to equalise.

“I felt we were passing the ball fairly well and our patterns of play and movement were good. We were getting into good situations but then we’d break down, just lacking that final bit of quality.

“The league table doesn’t look great but the performances have been better than that shows.”

In between Berwick’s fifth and sixth defeats of the season, they were handed a trip to Fife to take on league rivals Cowdenbeath by Sunday’s Scottish Cup first-round draw. That tie will be played on Saturday, October 3.