Berwick Rangers show their counter-attacking prowess as they beat high-flying Linlithgow Rose
Berwick Rangers recorded their fifth league win of the season with a fine 3-1 victory over Linlithgow Rose at MKM Shielfield.
The visitors were never allowed to settle as Berwick pumped long balls into the box early on in the game.
Jamie Pyper saw a bullet header from an Alex Harris corner cleared off the line. Berwick regained possession and when the ball fell to Mikey Mbewe, he rifled in to give Berwick an early lead.
Pyper was given his marching orders halfway through the first 45 minutes when he stopped a shot with his arm in the box. The visitors pulled level from the resulting penalty kick.
Manager Kevin Haynes reshuffled his team to compensate for the red card, with Mbewe being replaced by Struan Mair.
It was all Rose and they tested Berwick’s defence, Liam Campbell making a good save from a Calum Rae shot and Alfie Robinson stopping the follow-up effort from Oliver Hamilton on the goal line.
Against the run of play, Harry Wright saw a shot deflected just wide as the half came to a close.
Another corner by Harris almost resulted in a goal early in the second half, a glancing header by Michael Barfoot going just wide of the post.
Despite their numerical advantage, the Rose defence was struggling to cope with Berwick and when Wright fed Kyle Somers he made no mistake as he fired Berwick into the lead.
The visitors had a couple of chances to equalise, one effort going wide and another good opportunity being skied over the bar.
Berwick made sure of the points with five minutes to go, launching a counter-attack from well inside their own half as Rose threw men forward in search of a second goal.
Hendry found substitute Caelan McCrone, who squared the ball to Blair Sneddon. His shot took a lucky deflection and rolled over the line to make it 3-1.
Haynes said after the game that he was “really, really proud of the boys”.
He added: “We’d been working on counter-attacking during the week, and it was more obvious we needed to counter-attack after he [Pyper] got sent off, so we worked on that and the third goal was just a devastating counter-attack.”
Berwick are back in action on Tuesday (November 4) when they host Caledonian Braves.