Berwick Rangers: An English Club in Scotland

New Formation?

The next 3 games with our new 4-3-3 formation were against Dundee United, Celtic and Rangers. The tactic made us less creative and gave our opponents more chances… so of course we won all 3 games!

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The results suddenly guaranteed that we’d finish 3rd​ so we gave some fringe players a chance in the last two games against Hibs and Motherwell.

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So this is what the final league table looks like.

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3rd​ place, Europa League football and 2 more points than last season mean it was another excellent year. However it still feels like a ‘what might have been’ season especially after the start we had.

On a side note I’ve noticed lately that a lot of players’ determination are dipping with star striker George Neil’s determination suddenly dropping from from 16 to 6.

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This is despite the squad having a determined personality.

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Nevertheless Neil still saved us this season with 36 goals in 46 games. Hopefully his sudden attitude change has no impact on his form next season.

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I’m still unsure of what formation to use next year as I switched back to the 5-2-1-2 in our last few games because most of our central midfielders were injured. It sort of doesn’t help with transfer policy as I’m either going to have too many centre backs or too many wingers at the club…

The next post will be the season review, I don’t think we’ll have such a large budget as we did last year but I’m still hoping we have enough to add some much needed quality in defence.
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2024/25 Season Review

2024/25 Season Review

Premiership: 3rd​
Scottish Cup: 5th​ Round
League Cup: 2nd​ Round
Europa League: 1st​ Knockout Round

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In the Europa League final Man City beat Schalke 4-0. It shows just how difficult our group was that the runners up of the competition were in it and were 2nd​ seeds.
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In the Scottish Cup Final Dundee caused an upset by beating Hibs on penalties with our former striker Tommy Caffrey scoring one of the goals.

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Not only does that mean Rangers won’t play in Europe next season (as they finished 5th​ in the league) it also means Dundee will go straight into the Europa League group stage and we’ll go into the 3rd​ qualifying round.

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Here’s what our squad looks like. A 3 and a half star player is considered a leading player for most SPL sides.

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This season was all about George Neil; he was the top scorer in the league and unsurprisingly was our Player of the Year.

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His strike partner Pape Samb claimed the 3rd​ most assists in the league.

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And Neil was joined in the SPL team of the year by midfielder Darren Halpin.

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Halpin has excelled in his first season at Berwick after his move from Derry City. He and Javier Chanduvi are the reason I want to switch to a tactic with 3 central midfielders, as those two and Snorrason are too good not to play week in week out.

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Hopefully we’ll be able to keep them, Chanduvi has just signed a contract with a release fee of £21.5m.

We’ll also be saying a fond farewell to Ben Hall and Robby McCrorie both of who helped us to promotion to the Premiership. McCrorie was on loan to us in the very first season of the save but like Hall is no longer good enough for the squad.

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Also Scotland will have 6 teams in Europe at the end of next season… that’s half of the league! The winner of the league in the upcoming season will go straight into the Champions League group stage.

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Our transfer budget is half of what we had last summer but that’s mainly because we didn’t get prize money and gate receipts from progressing in the Scottish Cup. It’s a good job I’ve gone into full on regen hunting sweat mode and have got some amazing bargains lined up.

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Overall the season I suppose was a success, it just doesn’t feel that way. I think part of the reason is because we did well in every competition but didn’t win anything. In my entire time as manager I’ve only actually won one competition and that was the Championship.

So, although finishing third and Europa League progression are good, next season my aim is to win a trophy, any trophy, for Berwick. Even the League Cup will do.

Celtic, Hibs, Rangers and Dundee United may make that difficult though...


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Season Preview 2025/26

At the start of our 9th season in charge of Berwick the only significant transfer out was Josip Zeljkovic to Hearts for £150,000.

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He’s not going to become the quality centre back I thought he would and Hearts came in with the best offer for him so that was that.

Now for the good stuff. We’ve been busy in the transfer window.

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Every signing is a regen apart from Benik Afobe.

First up is Osvaldo Fernandez who will be our new first choice keeper, we got him from Paraguay for £725,000.

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Lucas Zak comes in to be our first choice left back. He was only £575,000 from Sparta Prague but has a release clause of £3.1m in his contract so hopefully we can tie him down on a deal without that clause soon.

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Rodney Lashley will be first choice right back with his contract about to expire at Chelsea. 18 acceleration and 16 pace is what I like to see.

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Another player from Chelsea is Andre Deeney. He’s on loan for the season, our best centre back, and we’re not paying any of his wages so is an excellent signing.

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Benik Afobe has also come in to bring the average age up in the squad after his contract at Bournemouth expired. He is a very good player for our level.

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Apparently when I signed Martin McCulloch 4 years ago I promised him that we’d be in the Champions League by now. He was not happy with this and wanted to leave. Nobody wants him. Nobody.

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It’s as if he got sent off in a cup final when his team were already down to 10 men and therefore nobody trusts him…

Whether we sell him or not we’ve got a replacement for him. Here is Stanislav Dimitrov from CSKA Sofia.

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At £2m he was our most expansive signing but in my opinion was worth it.

With a plethora of midfield talent I’ve decided that we’ll be playing with a diamond this season.

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The squad overall is stronger than it was last year so hopefully we can improve on last years position in the league and progress further in the cups.

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We’re predicted to finish 4th​ this season. Celtic spent £21m in the summer whilst Rangers have no European football so I think a third place finish again would be a success.

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We’ll also enter the Europa League at the 3rd​ Qualifying Round. In that draw we got Lechia Gdansk from Poland.

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I can’t say I’ve heard of them... but they finished 3rd​ in the Polish league last season.

There’s still another qualifying round after this so it looks like we’re going to play a lot of games this season. That’s if we beat Lechia Gdansk of course.
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Afobe could be a decent squad player and get a few vital goals this season! Looking forward to another season of ups and downs in "Scotland".

Will you still be @ SJP for the European games?
 
The GallantPioneer1872 said:
Hopefully another European run for you, A good league title win this year and its group stages for you.. No pressure lol
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I think just being in the group stages is good for us, it gets us £2m in prize money anyway. And there's no chance of winning the league as long as Celtic are in it... I do want some silverware this season though, fed up of doing well and having nothing to show for it

neavie pops23 said:
Afobe could be a decent squad player and get a few vital goals this season! Looking forward to another season of ups and downs in "Scotland".

Will you still be @ SJP for the European games?
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He's looking good already, got a few goals off the bench. And no we've played the qualifying round games at the City Football Academy in Manchester. 7,000 seater stadium for a youth team and we still can't sell it out.
 
Europa League Progression

Our season kicked off with just the 8 games in August. After defeating Dundee in our first league game we came up against Lechia Gdansk in the Europa League 3rd​ Qualifying Round.

Europa League 3rd​ Qualifying Round: Lechia Gdańsk V Berwick Rangers

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It was great to see that the new tactic had put an end to use conceding late goals…

Thankfully we were too powerful for them in the second leg.

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Once again George Neil was our savior. I love you George.

Our Europa League home games are now being played at the stadium of Man City’s youth team. Of course our fans were still outnumbered 4 to 1 in our home leg against Gdansk.

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Europa League 4th​ Qualifying Round: FC Steaua Bucureşti V Berwick Rangers

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FCSB were our opponents in the next round. They were in the Champions League Group Stage last season so it was not an easy draw.

We got the best preparation for the game by being taken to extra time by Kilmarnock in the League Cup just 3 days before our game in Romania.

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Thankfully it was with a rotated side and our first choice team did a professional job in Bucharest.

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It was a game with few chances but Pape Samb’s late goal clinched it.

Similar to the last round we were too strong for our opponents in the home leg.

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That meant for the second season in a row we were in the Europa League Group Stage. Once again we were 4th​ seeds for the draw.

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Europa League Group D

Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax
Sporting Clube de Braga
Brøndby IF
Berwick Rangers

It’s a difficult draw but what a great opportunity to play against a historic club like Ajax. We had a tough group and progressed last season so it’ll be interesting to see how we get on this year.

Anyway that’s enough Europa League talk. We’ve only lost one game this season and that, of course, was to Celtic.

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Despite that loss we’re second in the league with a game in hand over the teams around us.

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So we’ve had a great start to the season, are still conceding late goals and George Neil is saving us nearly every game. I’m sure this has happened before…

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Fairly to new to this forum and I have to say this has been a fantastic read from start to finish! Definitely some inspiration to start a lower league save myself! Looking forward to Berwick finally getting into the CL... maybe a Europa League win on the horizon soon!
 
Great read so far mate, hope Berwick will secure silverware this season! Keep it up. Cheers
 
willhoward42 said:
Fairly to new to this forum and I have to say this has been a fantastic read from start to finish! Definitely some inspiration to start a lower league save myself! Looking forward to Berwick finally getting into the CL... maybe a Europa League win on the horizon soon!
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Cheers mate! The Europa League I think will be too tough for us in the next few years there's just too many good teams. Hopefully we can challenge Celtic soon and stop their domestic dominance

Kevin Theodora said:
Great read so far mate, hope Berwick will secure silverware this season! Keep it up. Cheers
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Hopefully we can but it'll have to be in the cups I think.. Celtic are just too strong. They can afford to pay Stefan De Vrij £84,000 a week whereas our entire team and staff are on a combined £82,000 a week!
 
Please Stop Conceding Late Goals

Our first Europa League group stage game was at home against Ajax.

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What a result that is! Not only is it the 4th​ seeds beating the 1st​ seeds but also it’s little Berwick defeating one of the most historic clubs in Europe!

For some reason we’re back at St James’ Park for the group stage games and this meant that, once again, we’ve broken our attendance record.

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And once again it was because there were loads of away fans...

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However our next group stage game against Brondby didn’t go to plan as they beat us 2-1.

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We’re also into the semi final of the League Cup after a win against Hamilton in the quarter final. Celtic and Rangers are both knocked out… Does this mean we have to take this competition seriously too?

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Good form had stalled slightly as after losing to Brondby we also lost at home to Motherwell (the third season in a row we’ve lost at home to them).

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Our next 3 games against Aberdeen, Rangers and Braga were crucial… and we had to play all 3 in 6 days!

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I feared the worse as a string of losses derailed our season around this time last year. Thankfully it didn’t turn out that bad.

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A win against Rangers and draws against Aberdeen and Braga… can’t be upset at that can I?

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WHY DO WE KEEP ON CONCEDING LATE GOALS? NOTHING HAS CHANGED IN OVER A YEAR!

Still, after 3 games our Europa League group is delicately poised. Dundee and Hibs on the other hand are both top of their groups.

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It also already looks like a race for second between Rangers and us in the league.

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And to top it all of there’s a chance of a final if we beat Dundee United in the League Cup semi-final.

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Those late goals are killing you time after time season after season
 
neavie pops23 said:
Those late goals are killing you time after time season after season
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We just love conceding a late goal, I forgot to mention that Aberdeen equalised after 90+6 mins as well!

johnstrac said:
Is it a stamina thing ?
If not, try to tighten up at the end of games.
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I don't think so, I rotate the squad far better than the AI does so we usually end the game with more fitness than our opponents. I've literally tried everything, from dropping deeper and going to contain to just keeping things exactly the same, I'm tempted to go overload in the future because nothing else seems to work.

It has made me wonder if it's something to do with our young and inexperienced side though. We only have 4 players over the age of 25 so maybe that's something to do with it? Does FM work like that? Who knows, thankfully form has continued to be good.
 
A Famous Night in Amsterdam

A full strength side was put out against Dundee United in the League Cup semi final. Before the game George Neil had been on a run of 1 goal in 6 games…

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So it was about time he started scoring again.

We’re in a final! More importantly the final is not against Celtic!

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We’ll play David Moyes’ Motherwell in the League Cup final just 3 days after our Europa League game against Ajax, they could turn out to be 2 very, very big games.

We also played the most one-sided 2-0 victory in the history of football against Braga.

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Just look at the match stats!

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All I did was instruct the players to whip crosses and changed the width from narrow to balanced and somehow we’re on a crazy winning run and starting to pick up clean sheets.

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Our next game was against Ajax in the Europa League. An important game but because the cup final was 3 days afterwards we made 9 changes to the team. What happened next will go down in Berwick folklore.

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Unbelievably we beat Ajax 5-1! Lee Farrell, who we signed from Airdrie for £5,000 when we were in the Championship, put in a man of the match performance at the Amsterdam Arena with two goals and an assist.

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The game itself was actually a close one but we just took our chances. Nevertheless it’s undoubtedly the greatest result in Berwick’s history and one that was witnessed by a crowd of 61,849… 99 of which were Berwick fans.

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Funnily enough we still probably have to get a result against Brondby in our final game to qualify despite that victory.

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What a way to prepare for the cup final in 3 days time! I almost feel bad for not giving the same players that destroyed Ajax a chance, but our strongest XI will be picked for the final.
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What a performance against Ajax, yes they aint the powerhouse they once were but Berwick aren't either (yet ;))

Glad to see an update without any late goals conceeded :P
 
Great read so far bud thoroughly enjoying it, anychance of a screenshot of the rangers team please
 
neavie pops23 said:
What a performance against Ajax, yes they aint the powerhouse they once were but Berwick aren't either (yet ;))

Glad to see an update without any late goals conceeded :P
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They’ve certainly declined over the years but it was pretty much our second string side that beat them. And 4 clean sheets in a row prove that miracles can happen!


darrent612 said:
Great read so far bud thoroughly enjoying it, anychance of a screenshot of the rangers team please
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Cheers mate, here’s screenshots of the squad and of the past managers. Let me know if you want to see more or specific players.

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League Cup Final

If you aren’t aware of or have forgotten what occurred in our one and only cup final to date I recommend you go back and read what happened (the 174th​ post on this thread on page 18).

Needless to say Martin McCulloch will not be playing and I will resign as manager if we go down to 9 men again…


Our second major domestic cup final was against Motherwell in the 2025 League Cup.

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In our most recent encounter against them they beat us 2-1 but David Moyes’ team were 10th​ in the table and underdogs for the game.

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And rightly so…

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Berwick are the 2025 Scottish League Cup winners

Well that was easy. The damage was done in the first half as we coasted to our first major trophy as Berwick manager.

Once again George Neil was our main man. He has 26 goals in 23 games this season and thankfully had done his job with two early goals before he went off with an injury.

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The victory was our 7th​ consecutive win in all competitions. The only negative going into the crucial Europa League game with Brondby was that we failed to beat Partick at home.

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With the Europa League group delicately poised avoiding defeat against Brondby was essential. We just about managed it.

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A late goal from them would have meant that we were knocked out as Ajax beat Braga in the other group game. Funnily enough we finished behind Ajax in Group D despite beating them twice.

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Second place is also looking increasingly likely in the SPL.

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So a League Cup win and progression to the Europa League knockout rounds for the second consecutive season. Not bad. What could possibly go wrong from here?


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Flying high now mate! Was glad to see you win the cup after the previous cup final of red mist! 2nd in the league progress in europe and silverware already! Looking like a great season!
 
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