IRN BRU Scottish Football League
Division Three
Saturday 26th September2009
Berwick Rangers 2 Montrose 0

Montrose made the long journey to England at the weekend to a ground where points have been hard to come by in recent seasons, as well as the game coming on the back of the side’s worst performance of the season after the 0-3 home loss to East Stirling the previous weekend.
As per previous games, this season so far the Montrose squad was again blighted by injuries, with Collier, Pope, Fleming and Gemmell all out for this game. Also out of the team were last week’s impressive young substitute Nick Gray, Fraser Milligan & John Maitland – neither of whom made the bench.
Incomers to the team were youngster Ryan Stewart, another impressive substitute from last week, Sean Anderson returning from injury and a trialist up front – ex-Hibs youngster Patrick Deane playing in the Montrose number 9 shirt.
Montrose lined up with McNeil in goal, with a back four of Hegarty, Crighton, Tweed & Campbell (in an unaccustomed left-back role). The Midfield was Stewart on the right with Davidson and Tomana in the middle of the park, Sinclair in a more advanced role than his usual left-back role, taking up position on the left wing. Up front the trialist was paired with Anderson, who played just behind the burly young target man.
On the bench for Montrose were Mark Russell, Daryl Nicol, Jordan Leyden, Chris Herd & Goalkeeper Fraser Stark.
The Berwick Rangers side had four former Montrose players in their starting 11, Mark Peat in the goal, Elliot Smith (who had two spells at the club) at left-back, midfielders Fraser McLaren & David Greenhill, both of whom had loan spells at the club.
Shielfield Park was bathed in sunshine as the teams took to the pitch surrounded by the speedway track; both sides looked to have lined up 4 - 4 - 2 for the kick-off, although it appeared during the first-half that Montrose, when defending and when they were without the ball, reverted to a 5 – 4 - 1 with Sinclair dropping into the left-back area.
The opening minute Berwick sought to attack, however this was countered by some good work down the right by Stewart, and was followed up with some nice crisp, confident passing on the floor by Sinclair, Anderson, Davidson, Deane, Tomana and Stewart, all of whom had touches of the ball early on.
This then led to the ball being worked from a Montrose throw-in on the left which found Stewart again on the right, after fine control and a first-time pass from Davidson. Montrose were on the move again in the 4th minute as Hegarty shot wide from 20 yards, after the full-back cut in from his right –sided position and proceeded to make a darting run towards goal.
In the nineth minute the Montrose defence was under pressure, as a Berwick free-kick was floated in from the right and saw the Montrose defence have two attempts to clear their lines.
From the kick-out Montrose again attacked down the right hand side with Hegarty overlapping Stewart, who played a lovely lobbed ball over the Berwick defender into the path of Hegarty who won a throw-in for his efforts which Montrose then failed to use to their advantage with Anderson losing the ball cheaply by failing to get a cross into the box quick enough.
In the 13th minute Tweed was caught out by a long Berwick ball, but Berwick’s number 10 failed to control the ball, allowing Montrose to clear it.
This should have been a warning for the Montrose defence, as in the 19th minute Berwick attacked again as a cross from the left, found ex-Montrose loanee Fraser McLaren at the far post who, despite McNeil’s best efforts saw his header fly past him into the back of the net.
In the 22nd minute, Berwick won a succession of corners as McNeil made two excellent finger-tip saves from the deep dangerous in-swinging balls played in by ex-Montrose loanee David Greenhill.
 From a McNeil kick out, the busy and effective Stewart was fouled on the half-way line, and from the quick free kick by Hegarty the ball ended up in Peat’s hands, despite the effort of Anderson to get on the end of the ball.
In the 30th minute, Montrose forced a corner after yet more good work down the right by Stewart. This corner would produce Montrose’s best chance of the first-half and possibly the game as Stewart’s cross found a well-timed run by Sinclair whose excellent header forced another corner. Sinclair took the second corner which both Crighton and Tweed, up from the back, failed to connect with as the ball fell into the hands of Peat.
This flurry seemed to have galvanised Montrose with the hard-working trialist Deane went close after latching on to a through ball from Tomana but he shot into the hands of Peat from 20yards out.
A Berwick ball from the back cannoned off Deane whose deflected ‘back shot’ actually went close, as the dipping ball forced Peat to back peddle to see it over the bar. This was Montrose’s closest chance yet.
A ball from the right by Berwick saw Montrose caught off guard and required to concede a corner which Montrose dealt with first time and then proceeded to launch an attack.
In the 40th minute, a through ball from Tomana found Deane, who ran onto the ball and again shot low into the Keeper’s arms from outside the box. Moments later, Montrose then had the ball in the back of the net, after a poor clearance from Peat allowed Sinclair to skin a man and delicately deliver a chip ball onto the chest of Deane who then headed past Peat in goal, but alas it was ruled out for an infringement.
As the first half drew to a close, a quick McNeil kick-out found Sinclair on the left. He cut inside and a fouled by one of the three Berwick players that surrounded him at the half way line and the resulting cross-field ball from the free-kick found no one.
The second half saw Montrose attack down the right through the hard-working Stewart who got the ball trapped under his feet and was unfortunate to be disposed. From this Berwick countered with an attack of their own, as a cross from Greenhill had McNeil in two minds as the defence again failed to pick up the back post run of McLaren and he headed over.
This second goal did come for Berwick in the 56th minute, after Crighton was unluckily adjudged to have conceded a corner by the referee. Montrose failed to clear the corner convincingly and with the second cross into the box, Greenhill found e-Arbroath striker Alan Brazil who took two efforts to finish knocking the confidence and momentum out of Montrose.
Montrose then sought to pull a goal back, as Anderson and Stewart worked down the right again to force two corners. This time, Sinclair’s corners missed Tweed’s head at the back posts by millimetres.
Montrose then replaced Anderson with youngster Jordan Leyden on the 60 minute mark. The youngster went up front to join the target man Deane, while minutes later Stewart went the extra yard in an effort to collect a misplaced Berwick pass and went through on goal, forcing Peat to parry for a corner for Sinclair to take and for Campbell, up from the back, to head wide.
In the 68th minute, McNeil kept Montrose in the game by staying big and rushing off his line to save from Fraser McLaren, whose run and shot looked like being Berwick’s third of the game after the Montrose defence were caught out.
After more good work by Stewart to force a corner, Montrose then proceeded to have a flurry of corners as Montrose sought to work Peat in the Berwick goals a bit more than they had done in the first half of the match, but made little headway.
Montrose then replaced the tiring and frustrating Tomana with Daryl Nicol in the 76th minute, as Berwick also made two substitutions, seeing Nicol move upfront and moving Leyden out to the left wing which pushed Sinclair into the centre of midfield beside Davidson.
Leyden’s move to the left saw him beat two men and cross into the path of Hegarty, who’s shot from outside the box was stopped by Nicol inside the 18-yard box, which Deane seized upon but shot low and wide of the goal. This was the last chance of the match for both sides, as the game descended into both sides cancelling each other out until the final whistle.
An improved performance from Montrose compared to last week, with Campbell’s versatility and Stewart’s performance being a highlight as he and the other youth team players all linked up well together. However, it is all too painfully plain to see that the side is lacking confidence in defence and in front of goal, with too many players holding onto the ball for too long and being disposed, coupled with poor decision making at both ends of the pitch.
The youth players currently seem to have a better understanding of each other on the pitch, more confidence and lack of fear compared to their more senior team-mates, who again struggled to influence the game.
The emergence and growth of the youth players appears to be the only real positive for the team to take from this game, as too for the small band of supporters who made the journey to see the team work hard but with little to show for it, and whose support and encouragement of the young players, particularly Stewart and Sinclair, should be commended.