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Relegation Play-offs; Cove v. Berwick


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Berwick joining the english leagues would be a disaster imo, you'd be about 60 miles from your nearest opponents even in some ultra-localised league like the northern league, where 90% of the teams are within 30 miles of each other. It's no surprise Penrith ended up bottom of that league, or Fort William bottom of the highland league, they travel 5 times further than everyone else and you will too. That in turn makes it hard to attract players, at that level they're playing for petrol money

At least in the lowland league you get local games against gala, vale of leithen and the league gets mentioned in the results section of the bbc website and most of the papers.

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Berwick joining the english leagues would be a disaster imo, you'd be about 60 miles from your nearest opponents even in some ultra-localised league like the northern league, where 90% of the teams are within 30 miles of each other. It's no surprise Penrith ended up bottom of that league, or Fort William bottom of the highland league, they travel 5 times further than everyone else and you will too. That in turn makes it hard to attract players, at that level they're playing for petrol money
At least in the lowland league you get local games against gala, vale of leithen and the league gets mentioned in the results section of the bbc website and most of the papers.


Yeah I understand looking at northern 2 those games look far more appealing than Edusport

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Went to the game as a neutral & thought Cove could have been even more emphatic winners missing a load of chances early in the second half, Berwick only ever threatened for about 10 minutes. Early in game the Berwick players were shouting encouragement to each other by the end they were shouting at each other , the bench & looked a well beaten side, difficult to see anyway back for them. First time at the ground & think for what Cove need it fits the bill ok with good modern facilities, yes its tucked away a bit & a bit of a walk from the bus & pubs but for a lot of folk with a wee bit of planning its ok. Terrific crowd today with over 1900 there, with league 2 crowds of probably 300/500 including the odd bus load of away supporters sure folk will get used to it.

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38 minutes ago, Ginaro said:

Some of the posts I've seen have suggested level 9 for Berwick - as there's a vacancy in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_Northern_Football_League, where attendances are more like LL level: https://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/divisions/15/

216 - Northern Football League Division One

135 - Lowland League

101 - Northern Football League Division Two

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Went to the game thinking Cove would win but never expected it be that easy. 4-0 did not flatter Cove in the slightest.  Cove missed loads of chances as well. 

Berwick put up very little fight today and seemed resigned to relegation from very early on. Feel for their fans as they must be devastated at prospect of dropping out the league. 

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I expected to see a Cove win, but I didn't expect Berwick to be this bad, could easily have been more than 4. Whatever you think of Cove, they are surely earning their place in the SPFL. Decent ground as well, good size for a club like that. Location isn't the greatest, but also not as bad as some people suggest. There are pubs nearby and it isn't too hard to get to. The attendance weas excellent, although it will be interesting to see how many will turn up for regular SPFL2 games. Congratulations to Cove fans and commiserations to Berwick fans.

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A long, rambling collection of thoughts about today...

This is what happens if you build a team full of LL/EoSL players. A big chunk of this is on JH (let's not forget he got three extra players in by getting them to break their contracts, which is shameful IMHO). Then the board for taking so long to hand him his P45. Then the current management for the line-up today...

Unless Brennan is still not fit enought, Goodfellow shouldn't be in the team. He's too reticent to come for crosses, for starters. We reckon he was at fault on 2 if not 3 of the goals.

Hume is a waste of space. He didn't do much more than get booked.

O'Kane has often been a red card waiting to happen, and was a little unlucky to get booked. He should've scored, and at least he kept trying throughout the game.

Bob Wilson, for all his faults, was the player who most looked like he *really* cared. He kept trying to raise the players, and made some good saving tackles and interceptions. He looked gutted to go off when he ws injured.

Barr should have been on from the start. We need someone who can move around a bit, and has a bit of skill and can get to the byline and cross. We looked more impressive going forward (although TBF that wasn's *that* hard) after he came on.

Healy worked hard, but it's pointless hoofing the ball up to him to win the header if we don't have anyone within 5 yards of him to get the second ball. If Adamson had watched the offside line better he'd have been on goal a lot more times than he was in the first half. Too many times he didn't get a shot away.

Adamson flattered to deceive. Working with Healy he looked our best threat in the first half, but was subbed for the second.

Brydon worked hard too, but made some rash decisions and tired late on.

The rest of the (starting) players drifted in and out of the game at times.

We don't look fit enough, and we don't seem to know when to pass and when to hold onto the ball.

The injuries didn't help, given that two were at the back.

The first half was pretty scrappy, even though it felt that Cove were on top, there weren't many clear cut chances. Cove deserved their win, for sure, but I hate the way they kept trying to con the referee. It happened last week when their pressure on the ref led to the second booking and sending off, and this week one player went down holding his face like he'd been hit (then got up and carried on when the ref ignored him) and another screamed blue murder right in front of us and was lying on the ground holding his calf but got up and started running within about 15 seconds without even limping when the ref ignored him.

I said to my co-travellers at half time, I don't think Cove are a particularly good team. They hadn't carved us apart like some teams in SPFL2 have done. They got two goals later on as we tired and made more mistakes (again), plus we're not a good side, by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh and Masson's goal for Cove was a peach (even *we* applauded it). He'd blazed a couple of much better chances over the bar earlier on, so it did come as a bit of surprise.

I'm lucky. I can't make next week. I hope the board change their minds and let residents and season ticket holders in for free. We need to pack the place out, and we need the management team to (a) pick the best XI, and (b) set them up to create chances and score goals. It's a *humungous* ask, but there is an infinitessimally small glimmer of hope.

Edited by Alpha Gordini
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