Berwick Rangers suffer heavy 7-1 cup defeat against Airdrieonians

Berwick Rangers suffered a heavy 7-1 defeat at the hands of Airdrieonians in the KDM Evolution Trophy on Saturday afternoon.

Two goals in the opening 10 minutes launched the Borderers’ League One hosts into a commanding lead at the Excelsior Stadium, with the away side eventually heading in 3-0 down at the interval.

Michael Mbewe would score Berwick’s only goal early in the second half, but the strike would prove to be little more than a consolation as Airdrieonians kicked on to put seven past their visitors.

Speaking after the final whistle, however, Rangers interim boss and goalkeeper Calum Antell - who has assumed duties in the dugout alongside Jamie Pyper following Kevin Haynes’ recent departure from the club - was quick to praise his squad in spite of the one-sided result.

He said: “I think the boys gave it everything. I think after Tuesday night [a 3-2 win over Stranraer] it was a massive effort today to come here. We weren’t naive enough to think it was going to be an easy game. You're up against a good team who are full-time. We watched a lot of their game against Bonnyrigg on Tuesday, and you could see how well they'd done there. I think after the effort the boys gave on Tuesday, I wouldn't say it was a free hit today, but we knew we were going to be up against it.”

The Berwick stopper continued: “We drummed into the boys about trying to stay as tight as we possibly could for as long as we could. We know sometimes when teams like this get one goal, they tend to get another one quite quick.

“I can't fault the boys. It's been an interesting week since the gaffer left previously. The boys have done brilliant for us. They've given us everything the last two games. We'll probably try and take the positives away from this game, which we did. We scored a goal. I think we had a great spell in the 20 minutes of the second half. We got the ball down, passed it through the lines.

“But yeah, just individual mistakes really cost us at the end. But listen, we're not going to dwell on it. Our focus now is on Cowdenbeath next Saturday.”

As referenced by Antell, Berwick’s next outing comes away against Cowdenbeath on Saturday afternoon in the Scottish Cup. The Fife outfit currently sit two places above Rangers in the Lowland League East.