Early goal sinks Berwick Rangers in Linlithgow Rose defeat

An early goal and a missed penalty proved the difference as Berwick Rangers fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat in a hard-fought Lowland League East clash against high-flying Linlithgow Rose on Saturday afternoon.

The Borderers found themselves behind inside six minutes as Dylan Paterson reacted fastest in the box to slot the visitors ahead after a decent spell of pressure.

From there, Berwick were presented with a golden opportunity to pull themselves level when Liam Gregory was tripped inside the Linlithgow area, but Greg Binnie’s well-struck effort was superbly tipped around the post by goalkeeper Cameron Binnie.

Despite failing to take anything from the contest, however, Berwick boss Martin Scott was largely positive in his post-match assessment. Speaking after the final whistle, he said: “It was a pretty tight game. I think we had to shuffle the pack a wee bit today, and I think there was a wee bit of apprehension in the way we started the game. But on the flip side of that, Linlithgow Rose started really well for the first 10 minutes of the game, and they scored in that period.

“But I felt after that, we settled down, and there was a positive reaction from the group. We grew into the game, and obviously in the first half we had probably three good chances ourselves, including the penalty kick, to get back into the game. So, yes, I felt overall we deserved something from the game.”

He continued: “A very good Linlithgow Rose side, you can see that. But when you analyse it, and you look at it from our perspective, we have only had five training sessions and four games [since Scott was appointed]. We've got two victories and two defeats, but I can see a massive improvement on our performance there.

“So I said that to the players, as long as you're applying yourself, there's no problems in that aspect. We can refine aspects of our game that are going to improve us and make us more competitive at the top end of the league.”

Scott added: “We just have to keep working to improve and get better. It hurts at this moment in time, obviously at home as well, and losing to a side in Linlithgow who are potentially second top at this point.

“They've scored 29 goals previous to today, only conceded 12. So they're doing something right. But our main focus is on us. How can we improve? How can we get better?”