Irn Bru League Three                            Att 439

 

Stenhousemuir 1 [Dalziel 28]   Berwick Rangers 2 [Callaghan 64, McLaren 81]

 

The Warriors reverted back to a 3-5-2 formation for this game after the heavy pitch at Annan had dictated that a 4-4-2 was the tactic to be used there.

With ex-Berwick manager John Coughlin in the Warriors hot seat and a number of players from both sides featuring against their old sides it looked to be an intriguing encounter as Stenhousemuir tried to get revenge for the defeat at Shielfield earlier in the season.

Stenhousemuir started with ex-Borderers Chris McGroarty, Jordan Smith, Iain Thomson and Iain Diack in the starting eleven whilst Berwick had ex-Warriors John Dillon and Fraser Forrest with another couple Iain Little and Ryan McGurk on the bench

 

Both sides made changes to their goalkeeping personnel with Kieron Renton making his first start since defeat at Elgin on the 18^th of October and Jamie Barclay making his debut for Berwick on loan from Falkirk after an impressive spell at East Stirlingshire earlier in the season.

 

Stenhousemuir looked to have taken the lead in the 12^th minute of the game when Diack dispatched the ball past Barclay following a Scott Dalziel pass but the celebrations were brought to an abrupt end when it was spotted that the nearside assistant had flagged belatedly for offside after it looked as if Diack got away with having strayed too early.

 

Diack had another chance to put the Warriors ahead in the 25th minute but fired wide with the goal gaping after Dalziel set him free and in truth should have done much better with the effort than he did as he had plenty of time to compose himself.

 

The home side continued to be the more threatening as they controlled the midfield battle but when they eventually took the lead there was an element of good fortune about it as a high punt by Chris McLeod was not dealt with properly by the Berwick defence who were caught napping and Dalziel took advantage of dithering in the Rangers defence to steal the ball and shoot home from 12 yards

 

Berwick looked as if the had equalized in the 36^th minute through a Fraser McLaren effort after Kieron Renton had blocked the initial effort at point blank range, they were to be denied though as the referee had stopped a handball in the move.

 

Going into half time the Warriors looked to be in a comfortable position despite only being a solitary goal ahead as Berwick rarely threatened apart from a succession of corner kicks in the opening minutes of the game.

 

For some reason, however Stenhousemuir struggled throughout the second half and allowed back into the game. The Borderers were given a helping hand in their attempts to get back into the game when Kieron Renton was not strong enough at a corner kick and his weak effort to stop a Stuart Callaghan corner going into the net was always going to fail. This goal just after the hour gave Berwick a major boost whilst deflating the home ranks and the away team for the rest of the game always looked the more likely to score.

 

With nine minutes left they took the lead through a superb piece of opportunism ny Fraser McLaren when he lobbed Renton from all of 40 yards after the ball had deflected into his path off the referee.

 

With Stenhousemuir manager having stated before the Annan game that the team effectively needed to win every game this result looked as if it could bring an end to Stenhousemuir’s title aspirations and they will need to be fully focused for the rest of the campaign if they are not going to struggle in their efforts to stay in the play off hunt

 

Stenhousemuir – Renton , Lyle, McGroarty, McLeod [b35], Smith, Ovenstone, Shirra [b43] [Motion 72], Thomson, Dalziel, Diack and Molloy [Morgan 72]. Subs not used– Bennett, Love and Brand

 

Berwick Rangers – Barclay, Guy, Dillon, Ewart [b35], Forrest, Callaghan, McMenamin , Mearns, Gribben, McLaren and D.Greenhill [Little 88]. Subs not used – McGurk, McMahon, Chris Anderson and Lennox

 

Referee – Brian Colvin              Assistants – Francis Andrew and Andy McWilliam