East Kilbride vs BRFC – Match Report
It was a tale of two penalties as Berwick fell to a third consecutive Lowland League defeat at East Kilbride.
John Robertson’s first-half spot kick wrapped up all three points for the new Lowland League champions with Jackson Mylchreest seeing his late penalty saved.
Thomas Scobbie did manage to have Liam Buchanan on the bench after the striker went off early against Linlithgow Rose with Bayley Klimionek pushed further forward to partner Jackson Mylchreest up top while Thomas Kay continued to deputise for an injured Callum Antell in goal.
Table toppers East Kilbride knew a point would be enough to wrap up the Lowland League title and had the ball in the net within a minute. Nice play set up an opportunity for Dylan MacDonald just inside the area but the Kilby fullback sliced his attempt. It was heading way wide until it hit Keir Samson, trying to stay out of the way, clean in the face and deflected past Kay but the linesman had his flag up for offside quickly.
Mick Kennedy’s side were very sharp in possession but found it tough to create clear opportunities with Joe Ellison and Dougie Hill in particular throwing themselves in the way of crosses or shots. It would take a mistake for East Kilbride to get a chance to take the lead.
A corner wasn’t fully cleared and the ball fell to David Ferguson in the box. With his back to goal and running away from the box, he was clumsily hauled down by Callum Mackay with no Berwick players complaining about the award of the penalty. Robertson stepped up and sent Kay the wrong way.
Berwick managed to hold on until half time without too many scares but their comeback was made a lot harder by a serious looking injury to Jordan Sinclair early in the second half. The midfielder went down after an innocuous looking clash and, with help from the East Kilbride physio team, he was stretchered off.
Berwick, though, seemed to grow from there. Jamie Stevenson sent a free kick high over the bar before Klimionek was sent racing through by Grant Nelson but his effort was brilliantly saved by Lyle Avci.
The home side were not as slick as they were in the first half but have a couple of opportunities to kill the game off with Tiwi Daramola shooting wide when he should have scored and Andy Stirling forcing a good stop from Kay.
However, Berwick kept plugging away but just couldn’t quite get the break of the ball until deep into added time. Avci looked to play out from his own goal line but his touch away from Cammy Graham was heavy and, in his desperation to atone for his mistake, he slid in on Stevenson who had beat him to the ball and conceded a penalty. Mylchreest stepped up and hit his penalty well but Avci guessed right and turned the ball round the post.
In the end, much like Berwick’s season, it wasn’t to be. A battling performance marred by injuries to Sinclair and McCormack and, with just one game to play, Berwick can only finish as high as 12th provided results go their way.
