Berwick Rangers: An English Club in Scotland

2021/22 Season Review

Thanks to our strong form in our last few league games we ended the season with 92 points having only lost 2 games all season. Both of these were records.

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Our dominance in the league was typified by having the top 9 highest rated players in the Championship. In fact our entire starting XI were in the top 15 highest rated players. Sheer domination.

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As for individual awards there were a lot. Robby McCrorie kept the most clean sheets, Lee Butter got most assists and Tommy Caffrey was once again top scorer in the Championship.

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Caffrey ended up winning Player of the Year and just the 9 of our players were in the Championship Team of the Year.

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Here are the season summary and players stats.

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With expiring contracts and loans we’re going to start pre season with 12 first team players so a lot of quality transfers are needed in the summer.

Yet after that incredible season I am most pleased about this news.

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We can scout in Europe!

Before even looking at the budgets the scouts were out in Serbia, Czech Republic and the lot. I had visions of a random regen from Romania taking the league by storm next year. Then I looked at the budgets.

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200 grand transfer budget and 5 grand a week on wages. Cheers board.
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Loving reading this! I am doing a mercenary game similar to Derby Jack and have just gone to Albion Rovers just played Berwick and got battered 4-0 at home by them. Not what I like at all!
 
brooksey84 said:
Loving reading this! I am doing a mercenary game similar to Derby Jack and have just gone to Albion Rovers just played Berwick and got battered 4-0 at home by them. Not what I like at all!
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Cheers mate and that's unlike Berwick! They never seem to do well on other saves I've had, they're forever stuck in League Two.
 
2022/23 Season Preview – You can’t win anything with kids

Our first season in the SPL will start with a very lengthy post.


It was near impossible to sign anyone good with the budgets we had. All those I had lined up on a free transfer either went to League One clubs in England or went to fellow clubs in the SPL.

Those, on the other hand, who were willing to join either had too high an asking price or their wage demands were too high… but never both. So many times I’d see a player transfer listed at a price affordable to us only to discover his wage demands were extortionate.

Consequently have I abused the loan market? Yes.
Did I have any other choice? No

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We’ve made 7 loan signings all together, mainly from clubs in England. Steven Barbour arrives on loan for the third season in a row at left back whilst Dan Blake and Graham Ingram look to be the best loan acquisitions.

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Our only decent signing who actually belongs to us is Jason Kerr. He’s the man who’s going to keep out strikers earning 50 times as much money as him.

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The transfers mean our squad is very young. Like, very young. Our strongest XI contains 6 teenagers and two 20 year olds. I simply can’t find any other players who I can afford and who would make a difference to the team even with the increased scouting range.

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Just to put into perspective how ridiculous our budgets were here’s the comparison with teams in the SPL.

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Oh and the teams in the Championship...

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There are 9 teams in the Championship spending more on wages than us never mind the Premiership! I think we might be a bit out of our depth.

We do though still have the best part of the month to do some business and have £3,000 in wages left over so have room for one or two more quality signings, if there are any that exist. And although the players are young most of them are considered good enough for Premiership football.

Anyway that’s enough about transfers. The season preview says we’ll finish 12th​ and I can’t disagree, neither can the board as they want us to “fight bravely against relegation.”

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However it looks like Ross County and Partick Thistle will be down there with us so the games we play against them throughout the season will be massively important if we are to have any chance of staying up.

Also, for the first time, we have won our group in the League Cup and therefore have progressed to the 2nd​ round where we will play St Johnstone.

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Our under 20s now play in the Challenge Cup because we are in the top division and beat Partick Thistle u20s 5-0 in the first round. How ironic would it be if our under 20s got further in a competition that we continually struggled in.

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I’ve also decided against asking for increased transfer budget, improved training and youth faciliites etc for now. This is because if we do go down with all of these improvements going on then we’ll just be in financial turmoil. If we survive this season then hopefully we’ll establish ourselves as an SPL club and then upgrade facilities as we become a stronger force in the SPL.

Right, I think that’s it. We kick the season off with a Friday night game, on TV, against Motherwell and play Ross County at home after that. Who knows what this season has got in store for us.
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Just caught up. Still loving this. Congrats on promotion. Good luck in the SPL
 
Tough transfer window for you! With Albion rovers I have managed to pick up some higher rated players once the transfer window had closed on frees either older more experience players winding down the clock & also some younger lads who have higher potential.
 
Ralph2211 said:
Just caught up. Still loving this. Congrats on promotion. Good luck in the SPL
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JT3197 said:
Wow - what a challenge. Good luck
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brooksey84 said:
Tough transfer window for you! With Albion rovers I have managed to pick up some higher rated players once the transfer window had closed on frees either older more experience players winding down the clock & also some younger lads who have higher potential.
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Cheers everyone! There's only one guaranteed relegation spot so I'm relying on one team being worse than us this year.

And most of my best players came on frees during the season when we were in the lower leagues brooksey. Offer everybody a trial and have pacey strikers, that's all I needed!
 
End of Transfer Window and First League Games

In our first game of the season we were incredibly unlucky to lose 2-1 against Motherwell.

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We conceded two goals from corners and were probably the better team. Our first goal in the SPL was scored by our 4th​ choice striker Jordan Reid who is a League One standard player but one for the future.

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In our other games this month we blew a 2-0 lead against St Johnstone in the cup and lost away games against Celtic and Hibs. We did however pick up our first win in the top division against Ross County.

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Hibs dominated us and typically one of their goalscorers was former player Tommy Caffrey. He had no interest in joining us on loan for a third season but didn’t mind going to Hibs as back up.

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Man of the Match for Celtic on the other hand was 32 year old Kyle Walker who is still an England regular and on £76,000 a week.

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So after 4 games we sit 11th​ but it’s still too early in the season to read into that.

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We have however made two key transfers. The first is Sindri Snorrason, an 18 year old Icelandic midfielder.

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The vigorous scouting of almost every u21 international side in Europe paid off. He’s our highest paid player but is either going to be a mainstay at the club for years or we’re going to sell him on for a hefty profit.

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Also our best centre back Jason Kerr picked up an injury on deadline day, although he played a 5.3 against Hibernian so might be a welcome miss. Consequently to strengthen the defence I have brought in Aidan Wilson for 72,000.

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At 23 he’s one of the oldest players in the squad…
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Solid Start

11 games into the season and it’s going well. We’re in 9th​, a whole 3 points away from danger.

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Up until recently we were pushing teams close in every game and we could easily have more points. Yet in our last 3 games we’ve been terrible.

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It culminated in the most ridiculous own goal I’ve seen, where goalkeeper Robby McCrorie decided to ignore a back pass and watch the ball go into his goal. Needless to say he’s been dropped.

One thing that is noticeable is that we’re lacking goalscorers. Nobody has scored more than 3 goals for us in the league.

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I don’t think it’s too much to worry about, I’m just used to my strikers averaging a goal a game and winning a lot. We are easily capable of beating Partick and Ross County, which we’ve already shown, and in the grand scheme of things that's all that matters.

I have also only just realised that most of my players are on part time contracts still. Knowing this I managed to get the board to increase the wage budget and immediately gave Martin McCulloch a full time deal.

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This left me with around £1,000 left in the wage budget. I’ll be using it to get a goalkeeper who likes to kick the ball, rather than ignore it, when it’s trickling towards him.
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Only lost 1 in 6, Only won 1 in 9

Since our run of losing 3 in a row, which I thought was the start of something bad, we’ve lost 1 in 6. I prefer to ignore the fact we’ve won 1 in 9 and look at the positives. Either way, the youngsters are proving that they’re definitely not out of place in this league.

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During this period we played possibly the craziest game of the save against Celtic. We went 3-0 up after 23 minutes but before we knew it Celtic brought it back to 3-3. Just after this Snorrason decided to get sent off and it was only a matter of time before they went into the lead. Or so I thought.

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Somehow we defended better with 10 men. Again, looking at the positives, it’s a draw against Celtic. We’ll just forget about the 3-0 lead we threw away.

Here’s the table after 17 games. Almost halfway through the season and we’re now 8th​. Things are looking bright.

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Aberdeen are still below us as their participation in the Europa league group stages has affected their league form. They’re through to the knockout rounds whilst Celtic are through to Champions League knockout rounds. It’s looking good in terms of the league coefficient.

We’re not the best defensively, but there’s no point sitting back waiting for stronger teams to score against us so I’m willing to accept that we’ll ship some goals as long as we score some ourselves.

We’ve also been handed a tough draw against Hearts in the 4th​ round of the cup.

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In the Challenge Cup our under 20s are through to the semi finals.

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That’s further than we ever got...
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Sindri Snorrason is happy you promised him Champions League football.....he's a gullible sort.​
 
Can't be too disappointed to be in the position you are currently in. Decent position all things considered
 
TheBattman said:
great to follow
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Cheers mate glad you're enjoying it

scousegin said:
Sindri Snorrason is happy you promised him Champions League football.....he's a gullible sort.​
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Hahah I didn't even realise I had. Just checked and both him and McCulloch have been promised Champions League football by the end of the 2024/25 season. May have told them a little lie...

neavie pops23 said:
Can't be too disappointed to be in the position you are currently in. Decent position all things considered
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Yeah definitely, finishing 11th would be a massive success so to be where we are is brilliant.
 
Tranfers and Inconsistent Form

At the beginning of the January transfer window we had the opportunity to change the objectives for the season to get a higher wage and transfer budget. The board now expects us to avoid automatic relegation, which we’re definitely capable of doing.

With this we’ve signed a new first choice goalkeeper Fergal Hale-Brown who has been out of contract ever since he was released by Norwich in the summer.

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We’ve also signed 17-year-old striker Ross Hodge for £7,000 from Airdrie who he’ll join on loan for the rest of the season.

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That’s the third time we’ve picked up a very good young player on the cheap from Airdrie. It’s not as if they have amazing youth facilities either.

As for our form we’re rather inconsistent. We lost 1-0 at home to Ross County then followed that up with a 4-0 win against Hearts in the cup.

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Nevertheless after 24 games we sit, quite comfortably, in 8th​, 6 points ahead of ninth place Hamilton.

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Our strikers are also now hitting form. Graham Ingram and Gavin Black, who are both on loan, are starting to create a decent partnership.

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Martin McCulloch has helped them out by chipping in with 5 league goals this year. He’s still only 18 and is our captain. Sunderland are interested in him so it might be difficult trying to keep him in the summer.

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A sign of just how well we’ve done is that Celtic offered me a job interview.

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I declined, obviously. Cut me open and I bleed black and gold. I think they’re our colours…
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