Berwick Rangers' defenders shine in win against Cowdenbeath
Debut goals from Mickey Mbewe and Struan Mair gave Berwick Rangers an opening day victory – though boss Kevin Haynes admitted: “It wasn’t pretty.”
The Borderers beat Cowdenbeath 2-0 at MKM Shielfield to get their Lowland League campaign off to a winning start.
But it was the display of his defence that gave Haynes the most satisfaction in a game he summed up as ‘points over performance’.
“I think our best two players were Alfie Robinson and Jamie Piper,” he told the club’s social media.
“Big Alfie was outstanding today. He had a last-ditch tackle where, if he gets it wrong, it could be disastrous, could be a penalty, could be a sending-off, could be a multitude of things, but the two of them marshalled the defence very, very well, so defensively I thought we were good.
“Offensively we were pretty good and created a number of chances, and their goalie has made three or four good saves and had it been 4-3 it would probably have been fair.
“Cowdenbeath have had the two offside goals. The first one I think is very dubious, that could have changed the game, but the second I think is quite clearly offside,” said Haynes.
“We were second best in the first half. I thought we were better in the second half – scored a good second goal with great play by Taylor (Hendry) and what a finish from Struan.
“I think we needed a goal and that kind of settled us again, but I would have liked to have played better. But, as I say, it’s all about the points.”
Mbewe prodded in from close range from a corner and Mair flicked up and volleyed home a special from the edge of the box, with Haynes chuffed for the scorers.
“It’s so difficult coming to a club as someone who scores goals – you need that goal quickly and I’m delighted for both of our scorers.
“We want to add goals to the team and I’m delighted that we’ve got two debutants that have scored as quick as they have,” he said.
“Players feed off support so if you’ve got 500 people supporting you, you give that extra 5% energy or quality that seems to come from people. If you’re doing it in front of two people and their rottweiler it’s very, very different, so the support is massive, it always is, and I’m a big believer that we all go in the same direction – players, myself, the supporters, the committee, the board – we all pull in the same direction, we’re one club.”
Berwick are in action at Broxburn on Saturday.