East Kilbride trip next up for Berwick Rangers

Liam Buchanan celebrating scoring Berwick Rangers' equaliser against Civil Service Strollers on Saturday (Photo: Alan Bell)

A Liam Buchanan equaliser five minutes ahead of the final whistle salvaged a point for Berwick Rangers at home to Edinburgh’s Civil Service Strollers at the weekend, keeping them within reach of the Scottish Lowland Football League’s top ten ahead of a trip to East Kilbride this coming Saturday

Rangers go into that game, kicking off at 3pm, 12th in the table with 21 points from 16 matches, their hosts at South Lanarkshire’s Calderglen Country Park being six league places and eight points better off.

Third-placed Strollers’ scorer at Shielfield Park on Saturday was Alieu Faye half an hour in.

Looking back over that match, Berwick manager Stuart Malcolm told the club website: “I didn’t think there was too much in it at all.

“There was nothing in the game. We found ourselves 1-0 down. We made one forward positional mistake for their goal and got punished for it.

“In the second half, I thought we were the better team. I thought we played better stuff.

“We were quite committed in putting bodies up the park and forcing them back and then Liam came out with an unbelievable finish.

“There was character in abundance. I’m so proud of them.

“There was so much adversity and we managed to dig out a point.

“The character we showed was unbelievable. I’m just really, really happy.”

Buchanan’s equaliser against Strollers was the 37-year-old’s seventh goal since arriving at Berwick in June and Malcolm is delighted by the contribution the ex-Cowdenbeath and Partick Thistle striker has made to this campaign.

“He’s always scored goals,” said the 43-year-old. “He’s not going to change.

“His days of running into channels are probably gone, so we try to get the ball into his feet round about the box. He brings goals. He’s scored goals all his career and that’s not going to change for him until he finishes.”

One of Malcolm’s previous managerial jobs was at East Kilbride, leading them to the Lowland League title in 2019, and he’s looking forward to returning this weekend, saying: “It will be a different game to last weekend because of the pitch. They’ve got a new astro there and I think we’ll probably find that there’s a wee bit more football played.”