Berwick Rangers knocked out of Scottish FA Cup

The Northumberland side will look to put the disappointment behind them when they host Celtic B in the Lowland League at MKM Shielfield this weekend.

Berwick manager Kevin Haynes felt the black and gold had put in a ‘very Jekyll and Hyde’ performance during the cup tie.

“In the first half I felt we had some really good phases of play and created multiple opportunities – and they stopped doing it second half,” said a disappointed Haynes.

Fraser Dingwall followed up to shoot the Highlanders ahead in the 29th minute, pouncing to net after Calum MacKay’s free-kick thumped back off the post.

Haynes said: “I think we got too desperate too early in the second half and fell into the trap where we were a bit more direct and we just didn’t stick to the plan.”

“I felt that if we kept doing what we had done in the first half we would have created more opportunities, which would have ultimately led to us getting more opportunities to get a foothold back in the game.”

Nairn added their second 12 minutes from time as Andrew Greig’s shot also bounced out off the woodwork and Ben Barron was on hand to tap in the rebound.

“Most of Nairn’s chances came through set-plays, which they were good at. They had great delivery from free kicks and corner kicks and that was probably their biggest threat,” continued Haynes.

“The disappointing thing is we’ve now played in three cup competitions and we’re out of them all and we’re not even at the back of September yet.

“Our focus is the league. We’re a third of the way through the league campaign and we’ve got plenty to play for, and the League Cup will come in later on in the year as well.

“The lads need to pick themselves up and we need to get away from that Jekyll and Hyde-type team that we are at the minute.

“We’re good in spells, but we’ve still not consistently put a full game together – I don’t know if that’s a mentality thing, but if anyone has the answer, they can let me know.”