Updated with Tuesday’s result: Berwick Rangers up for challenge of round three of cup

The Northumbrians’ 3-2 win away to their West of Scotland Football League second division hosts at Greenock’s Ravenscraig Stadium earns them a place in this Thursday’s third-round draw, with ties to be played on Saturday, October 10.

Ben McCrystal, Mikey Mbewe and Alex Harris scored the Scottish Lowland Football League East visitors’ goals on 17 minutes, 30 and 42 respectively, with Leroy Smith and Darren Boyle replying for the Inverclyde side on 22 and 82.

Round three is as far as Berwick have got in their eight seasons of contesting the challenge cup, going out at that stage 3-0 at home to Dumfries and Galloway’s Threave Rovers in 2024 and 1-0 away to East Lothian’s Musselburgh Athletic the year before, so they’ll be hoping to get lucky and go fourth this time round.

Manager Kevin Haynes admitted that his team had made harder work of making it past round two than could have been the case but was happy enough to see them get the job done, telling the club’s Facebook page: “It was a mixed bag.

“I thought we were very good in the first half and Greenock were very good in the second half and our standards dropped a little bit, which made it an entertaining and exciting cup tie, but I do think we should have had the game put to bed early in the second half. If we’d done our job right, that’s what we would have done, but we allowed Greenock to take control of the game. They put us under a bit of pressure but we weathered that storm and it’s about being in the hat for the next round.

“Greenock were always going to sit in and make life difficult for us – what was important was that we didn’t get frustrated and start snatching at stuff and that we kept doing what we were doing and working our way to goal.”

Berwick were back home at Shielfield Park on Tuesday night against Hibernian B in this season’s KDM Evolution Trophy, notching up their first win in that competition at the third time of asking, by 1-0, thanks to a 21st-minute Jamie Pyper goal.

That result – following a 2-2 draw away to Annan Athletic in Tuesday, August 25, and 4-3 opening-round loss hosting Heart of Midlothian B on Tuesday, August 11 – leaves them 22nd of 40 teams in the trophy’s group-stage table, as one of five on four points from three fixtures.

Halfway through their six group games, that puts them on track to go through to November’s round of 32 as one of 16 unseeded teams, with 22 qualifying, six of them seeded, and 18 going out.

Haynes, 45, was happy with how his players handled the Edinburgh outfit’s colts, saying: “It was an improvement on the performances we’ve put on display over the last couple of weeks.

“It was more about how we played out of possession.

“I thought our shape was outstanding. We plugged gaps and we stopped Hibs from playing, and ultimately that’s what won us the game, our out-of-possession stuff.

“We filled in positions when somebody jumped out to go in a press. Our rotations were good, both in and out of possession, I felt.

“Particularly out of possession, our structure was good. We just allowed Hibs to try to break us down, which they couldn’t.

“I think we’ve done well in the competition as a whole.”

Next up is another home game this coming Saturday, against table-toppers Tranent on league duty, with kick-off at 3pm.

Rangers go into that game sitting joint-11th in their fifth-tier table, on four points from six fixtures, ten places and 14 points worse off than their East Lothian opponents.

They’ll be hoping to end a three-game winless streak against their visitors, both their meetings last season, at home in April and on the road last July, having ended as goalless draws, following a 2-1 defeat hosting them in March 2025.

“We’ll have a go at anybody in our league and we’ll go toe to toe, and if you get a bit of luck and things fall for you, you never know what you can get,” added Haynes, looking ahead to that game.