Berwick Rangers: An English Club in Scotland

DefinitelyTaylor said:
What a name Scott Scott has, gutted he's gone purely for that name! You're doing well for yourself at the moment, hopefully we'll find someone just as good as Scott and with an equally good name ;).
Click to expand...

Same mate! But I'll try and get him back at some point, there's no way a Scot called Scott Scott can be ignored in my Scotland save.
 
Youth Intake and New Contract

At first glance the youth intake looks fairly promising but I actually don’t think it’s that good. A 3 star player is only good at league 2 level and by the time these players reach their full potential I’m hoping we’ll be in the SPL. Hopefully one of the centre forwards has a better potential than the star ratings suggest.

View attachment 73782

Jamie Tanner is clearly the brightest prospect but I play with a flat back 5 and no wingers so even he might not have much of a future.

View attachment 73781

I also offered Craig Ferguson a youth contract simply because the thought of a 5’0” ball winning midfielder appealed to me…

View attachment 73780

Finally, I was also offered a new contract for another year. I think it’s fair to say that it was unsurprising, considering we were supposed to be in a relegation fight. A whole £25 extra a week as well!

View attachment 73779

​
 
Playoff Place Confirmed

Incredibly we have secured a playoff place this season and it looks more than likely that we will finish in second, although we are only 6 points behind Peterhead with 5 games left.

View attachment 73555

View attachment 73554

Needless to say it was our goal scoring that caused us to end up where we are. We’ve scored 18 goals more than any other team in the league.

Also here’s an explanation of the playoff system because I knew little about it…

To quote Wikipedia “The clubs finishing 2nd, 3rd, 4th in League Two, and the 9th placed team in League One enter the two-legged League One play-off. The 2nd-placed League Two club plays the 3rd-placed League Two club, whilst the team who finished 4th in League Two will play the 9th-placed League One side. The winners of these ties will then play each other in a two-legged final.”

The next update will be immediately after our last league game, just incase Peterhead perform the biggest bottle job of all time and we win the league…
​
 
Second Place and Playoff Opponent Confirmed

Little happened in our remaining league games, which included our first 0-0 draw. We’ve ended the season in rather inconsistent form and it doesn’t feel like we’re going to walk every game like it did in January/February time.

View attachment 73464

View attachment 73463

As they finished 3rd​ in the league we face Montrose in the Playoff Semi Final. The other game sees Stirling take on Forfar, who finished 9th​ in League 1.

View attachment 73462

View attachment 73461

In our 4 games against Montrose this season we have won all 4, which actually only makes me more nervous rather than installing me with confidence. This is a tie we should win.

View attachment 73460

I did think though that this made us favourites for the tie. Then I checked the match odds…

View attachment 73459

Montrose 1-6 favourites for the first leg?! Hopefully Sportpesa lose at lot of money because of their crazy odds…
​
 
Playoff Semi Final

First Leg – Montrose 1-2 Berwick

The first leg was made easier when Michael McKenna scored a ridiculous 30 yard free kick, the best free kick I’ve ever seen anyone take in any FM. With that I immediately switched to counter (I start every game on standard/flexible) and Scott Scott, it had to be, scored our second and his 30th​ of the season.

Despite a Montrose goal and an injury to Andy Irving we managed to hold on for the win. Where’s your 1-6 odds now Sportpesa?!

View attachment 73392

View attachment 73391


Second Leg – Berwick 5-0 Montrose

In the second leg, Montrose decided to play with a high defensive line. which is a bad idea against Scott Scott and Aaron Murrell as they scored two each and Murrell also grabbed 2 assists.

The stats look like it was an even game but Montrose had no highlights and we honestly could’ve scored ten, the early ball over the top to the strikers was too much for the Montrose defence.

View attachment 73390

View attachment 73389


So, we have a two-legged tie against Forfar to decide who will play in League 1 next season after they beat Stirling 3-2 on aggregate in the other semi final.

View attachment 73388​
 
Playoff Final

First Leg – Forfar 0-4 Berwick

View attachment 73287

Well that wasn’t expected! We breezed past Forfar in the first leg. Their entire team was incredibly tired, I don’t even know how as they had the same schedule as us.

Still, there was no stopping Scott Scott as he almost single handedly won the game with his two goals and one assist. Yet it might have been a very different story if Robby McCrorie had not saved a penalty when we were 2-0 up.



Second Leg - Berwick 4-0 Forfar

BERWICK RANGERS ARE PROMOTED TO LEAGUE 1!

View attachment 73286
Well that was ridiculous, we’ve absolutely destroyed Forfar over two legs. They were awful and deserve to go down however it’s a quite an amazing achievement for us to get promoted in the first season. There’s a lot of work to do if we want to stay in League 1 next season but I can’t wait for the challenge.

View attachment 73285

The 2017/18 season review will be the next post, it will probably be more detailed than my usual posts but I’m hoping it will be fun to look back on when we’re playing Barcelona in the Champions League final in 2030…

​
 
Season Review

What an incredible season! Berwick are promoted to League 1 at the first attempt. I’ll let the screenshots do the talking…

View attachment 73216
View attachment 73215
View attachment 73214

Michael McKenna, Callum Donaldson (our right back on loan from Hibs) and Aaron Murrell were all in the team of the year; Scott Scott might feel a bit hard done by.

View attachment 73213

A lot of my players are not good enough to make the step up and so will not be here next season. It’s clear that we’re going to need a good summer to stand a chance in League 1, but hopefully we can use the loan market to our advantage.

That’s our first season done; the next post will be previewing our first season in League 1.



There are only two words that can sum up that season:

Scott Scott
​
 
2018/19 Season Preview

A lot of transfers were made over the summer to replace the dead wood in our side but only one was significant...

View attachment 73093

It is the return (for a season) of Scott Scott, you can’t get rid of him that easily!

View attachment 73092


I’ve still got a significant amount of wage budget left but there is a lack of quality players that actually want to join us. Here’s a look at the rest of the transfers and the star ratings of the squad according to my assistant manager.

View attachment 73091

View attachment 73090

Pre season did not go too badly at all, especially in the Mickey Mouse Cup where we were competitive against teams in the divisions above us.

View attachment 73089

We’re predicted to finish 8th​ and I think I’d take that, but I honestly do not know what to expect this season.

View attachment 73088

I feel like the quality in this league is very similar to League 2 but only time will tell.
​
 
Well done on promotion to Scottish League One. The arrival of Scott Scott for the season is massive, hopefully he'll deliver like he did last season, he definitely will. :p
 
DefinitelyTaylor said:
Well done on promotion to Scottish League One. The arrival of Scott Scott for the season is massive, hopefully he'll deliver like he did last season, he definitely will. :p
Click to expand...

Thanks mate and I’m sure he’ll make the difference once again this season.
 
LemonyFresh said:
Great season get them to the prem or championship asap.
Click to expand...

I’ll try! I think this season might be more about finding my feet and then going for promotion next season… but I said the same about League 2 so anything could happen!
 
Shaky Start

Our first league game was against Brechin, who had just been relegated from the Championship, so a loss to them was not too concerning especially as we then followed that up with a 4-0 win against Airdrie.

View attachment 72902

However our next 3 games showed worrying signs.

View attachment 72901


We’re using the same tactic that saw us comfortably beat teams last year yet we’ve been completely outplayed 3 games in a row. And to top it all off we lost 5-1 at home to Albion Rovers, who are predicted to comfortably finish bottom.

View attachment 72900

It’s possible that the summer signings are not good enough, however I think it’s more realistic to say that the tactic leaves us too open at the back and too reliant on Scott Scott.

We could quite possibly be in for a long season… time for some tactic tweaking.
​
 
Getting Better

Just as I thought that we were in for a relegation battle, we now sit fifth in the table after winning 3 games in a row.

View attachment 72860

Switching our AMC to a ball winning midfielder on defend has coincided with the change in results, but it also helps that Murrell and Scott have started to hit form, with both of them getting a hat trick in the last 3 games.

View attachment 72859


Hopefully now we can kick on and achieve the mid table finish that is expected of us by the board.
​
 
Mid-Season Report

Switching to a slightly more defensive formation has worked and we now find ourselves comfortably in mid table after 21 games. I think it’s more likely that we’ll push on for promotion rather than drop off into a relegation battle.

View attachment 72658

View attachment 72657

As always Scott Scott continues to bail us out of games and he and Murrell have extended their formidable partnership into League 1. Scott is amongst the highest scorers in the division whereas Murrell has the joint most assists in the league.

View attachment 72656

Interestingly, Inverness are bottom of the Championship and so Scott Scott could well be playing regularly for them next season in League 1.

View attachment 72655

We also have a match against Hibernian in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup to look forward to.

​
 
Cup Run and New Contract

For our away tie against Hibs in the cup we received around £100,000 in gate receipts when usually we struggle to make £100k a season. We even managed to get a replay, in what I think typifies a smash and grab performance, with a 2-2 draw at Easter Road.

View attachment 72592

Unfortunately we ended up losing to them at home; nevertheless it was still an excellent cup run financially for us.

View attachment 72591


Alongside this our excellent league form has resulted in my first Manager of the Month award this season.

View attachment 72590


I’ve also accepted a new one-year deal however I am on a lot less money (£500 a week when it was £775 a week previously). I had to accept this, as I want to stay at Berwick no matter what, but thought it was strange how my wage has significantly decreased despite the club not being in any particular financial trouble.

View attachment 72589


Finally, after I claimed the youth intake last year was nothing special, our young striker John Wilson has been attracting interest from Hamilton in the SPL. They offered £3,000 for him in January, which I obviously rejected.

View attachment 72588


Talking of youth intakes… wait until you see our latest one!

​
 
Golden Generation


Now this I am very, very excited about. The youth intake this year has been one of the best I’ve had on any FM…

View attachment 72436

View attachment 72435


Bob Cunningham is one to pick out but others could quite easily surpass him. If his marking and determination can be improved then we have a player on our hands.

View attachment 72434


Added to the youth intake last year, which actually was not that bad as John Wilson demonstrates, we have some very promising players in our under 20s squad. Hopefully they’ll be part of our first team soon or, at the very least, we’re able to make a hefty profit off of them.
​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top