No excuses from Berwick boss after Hearts defeat
Rising Hearts star Bobby McLuckie netted a second half hat-trick as Berwick Rangers were hit for six last Friday night in the capital.
With the likes of McLuckie, Finlay Pollock and other promising youngsters who’ve being around the SPL squad in the Maroon ranks it proved a difficult evening – but boss Thomas Scobbie was making no excuses.
“In all fairness to Hearts, they were incredible and their speed in transition really caused us problems,” was his honest assessment after.
“The goals have come from us having possession and when it’s given away up the park, they’ve turned us around and within two or three passes they’re flashing crosses across the box.”
“I said to the guys that we need to get much better at the defence part of transitions in play, it’s easy running forward but it’s harder defensively. The set-up at times wasn’t great, we’re trying to do things then leaving big gaps and spaces that they were able to exploit.”
“It’s a really disappointing performance from the boys but we’re five games into a season, we’ve done quite well and we’re not going to be too disheartened about the result, we just need to pick ourselves up for this week’s games.”
Mackenzie Ross, Ryan Duncan and Owen Muirhead added the others for Hearts B with sub Arran Laidlaw pulling one back at Ainslie Park.
It was Berwick’s first League defeat ahead of Saturday’s game at Cumbernauld Colts following a mid-week match at home to the University of Stirling.
“We tried to get some freshness into the team as we’ve had guys who’ve had to play Saturday – Tuesday for three or four weeks and it’s difficult for them to go and perform consistently at really high levels,” continued Scobbie.
“We’ve started really well - obviously it’s a disappointing result at Hearts, but |I’m not going to look too much into it – I thought they were a very, very good side and Liam Fox has done tremendously well coaching them.”
“This result isn’t going to be anything to set us back, we just need to keep moving forward and being positive. I’m a big believer in moving forward and looking to the next thing, and that’ll be the games this week.”