A great start at Berwick Rangers.

My first League game of the 2026/26 season was a Scottish Lowland League game between Berwick Rangers and Cowdenbeath. It has not been long since both of these teams were playing in the SFL. Dropping out is a big disadvantage because it is so difficult to get back.

Although Berwick Rangers are based in England, they continue playing in the Scottish football system like their nearby neighbours Tweedmouth Rangers FC, who play in the East of Scotland League. Berwick don’t only play in Scottish football rather than English they also play in Tweedmouth rather than Berwick, the river Tweed separating the two. Cowdenbeath have the nickname of ‘The Blue Brazil’, a little irony, I believe. They do play in blue. I have, in previous years, reviewed a book about the fall of the ‘Blue Brazil’.

I started my afternoon with a Haggis and cheese backed potato at the Riverside Café with a short 10-minute walk from there to the ground. The café was also feeding a fan from Aberdeen who had travelled down for the game.

The ground is behind housing with a large area for parking and is shared with Berwick Bandits, the Speedway team. Once through the turnstiles, where they were collecting for new floodlights, the ground looks large with a main seated stand on one side and covered terracing on the other. The pitch was a lovely green looking to have been well prepared for the new season. It had been cut in circles around the centre spot for a pleasing pattern.

Although it was 20 degrees, it seemed chillier in the wind, which was making grey and white clouds scurry past. The big reveal of the match was that Berwick would be wearing their new third kit for the first time.

Berwick Rangers 2 Cowdenbeath 0

Saturday 26th July 2025 Lowland League, 15.00 pm kick off . Shielfield Park, Tweedmouth, Berwick Upon Tweed, TD15 2EF. The Gers v The Blue Brazil, Attendance 541

Berwick Rangers, All black kit with some yellow edging, goalkeeper in blue top and black shorts.

Cowdenbeath, Light blue shirts with white shorts, goalkeeper in all yellow.

The game kicked off, and the first 20 minutes were uneventful as both teams looked to find rhythm and pattern after the break from competitive football. Cowdenbeath scored after 23 minutes, but it was disallowed for off side. the game now stopped while an official walked round the ground to deal with a blue flare that had been thrown onto the edge of the pitch in celebration. Some players took advantage of the stoppage through an unofficial drinks brake.

The game continued in a dull fashion, but on 38 minutes, Berwick took the lead through Mikey Mbewe, who stroked the ball along the grass into the net after a corner from the left and two blocked shots. At half time, I felt that both teams were trying to blow away early season cobwebs.

The second half started much brighter with Cowdenbeath’s attacks coming from mainly down the left, and both teams had more chances in that period than the whole of the first half. The more competitive game was ended with 20 minutes left when Rangers, number 8, Stuart Mair, controlled a strong pass, turned and from 20 yards hit the ball sweetly into the top right hand corner of the net. With less than 10 minutes left a heavy tackle by a Cowdenbeath defender caused some reaction, and the resulting ruck was reviewed by the referee and his linesman with only one yellow card being issued.

Cowdenbeath scored with 2 minutes left but were again denied by the linesman’s offside ruling.

Berwick fans seemed happy with the result and felt that the team would do better than a relegation battle this season. They deserved to win, but Cowdenbeath need to go back to review how they can be more effective and proactive upfront.

The chips were a great start for this seasons chip league with a healthy score of 70. They were golden, crisp, tasty, no taste of fat, soft inside, if anything a bit dry. I decided against a Scotch Pie as I was not in Scotland but then foolishly bought a Bovril at half because, as I revealed in a recent blog, it was invented in Scotland. I made a mistake there.

Great to visit a friendly ground and hope that either of these teams can challenge this season to return to the SFL.

Let’s not forget Bovril.

The thick, warming Bovril at Clay Cross FC one evening game to help see off the cold made me wonder where Bovril started to become an iconic football drink.

Bovril is a drink that is associated with football. Many cups and mugs of it have been drunk at matches, particularly on cold winter days on wet and windy terraces, and huddled up to food kiosks. Sometimes, it was brought in by the supporters, in ‘Thermos Flasks’ but usually dispensed by a willing helper often in a freezing hut or warm and welcoming club house. Surprisingly, this British beverage originated in Canada, where a Canadian based Scottish butcher named John Lawson Johnson developed his business after years of running a very successful butcher in Edinburgh, where his beef stock was very popular.

The products big chance came when Napoleon III ordered tinned beef for his army, but Johnston suggested a canned beef extract, and Johnston’s fluid beef was born. A return to London in 1886 saw him promote his product, which he now called Bovril. Scott and Shackleton took it to the Antarctic, and their use to stem the cold and fortify them was noted.

Johnston’s promotional and advertising skills were exceptional, and one advert showed Pope Leo XIII with a steaming mug of Bovril with the heading “Two infallible powers. The Pope and Bovril. ” Within a few years of launch, Bovril was being sold in over 3000 grocers, pubs, and chemists.

Reproduction advertising material from Bovril’s early days.

It is Scottish football that seems to claim Bovril as its own with an archived ‘Glasgow Evening Post’ from the Friday 23rd September 1892 edition showing an advert for a ‘Grand Football Match’ at Ibrox with a strap line of ‘Bovril Served Hot’. In the same week, the club linked Bovril with pies. Before the start of the ‘Great War’, one stand at Ibrox was known by fans as The Bovril Stand due to a large advert on it. The rest is history as it spread as the preferred drink of fans all over Britain.

Its popularity has waned in recent years with the rise of all types football food, coffee, and alcohol taking over the tradition of a pie and Bovril.

Bovril as a product now comes in stock cubes, jars, and granules, making it easy to make a cup. Even a vegan version, based on beets, was launched in 2020 in conjunction with Forest Green Rovers but this seems to have fallen by the wayside along with a Chicken based version where a group of devotees are trying to get the company to resurrect the product.

Bovril will, I’m sure, be with us for many more years.

A trip to Gretna 2008 F.C. doesn’t disappoint.

I ventured over the border to watch a Lowland League game between Gretna 2008 and Tranent FC from near Edinburgh.

I arrived at Gretna’s huge car park with 5 minutes till kick off and took some time negotiating the haphazard parking. Although it had been a glorious day the temperature had dropped to 14 degrees and with clear skies was expected to drop further.

The stadium has an all weather synthetic pitch which is very flat. There was a large seated covered stand at one end, a clubhouse for drink and food , changing room and a small covered seated stand down a side with fencing and no standing on the other side. The other end was open with just some flat standing.

The suffix 2008 gives a clue here to one of the most fascinating football stories of the 21st century. I first remember noticing Gretna, a team in Scotland, playing in the English Northern Premier League and at the same time Berwick Ranger, a team in England, playing in the Scottish League system.

But Gretna’s situation was to change and propel them on a roller coaster journey with some amazing ups and downs. They decided to apply to join the Scottish Football league and successfully started in the Scottish third division for the 2002/03 season replacing Airdrieonians who had folded. Brooks Mileson who had made a lot of money in insurance and had invested in football teams decided that there could be an opportunity at Gretna having just failed to invest heavily in his adopted home of Carlisle.

There has been much writing about how with the injection of money they managed to gain three straight promotions to the Scottish Premiership, and appeared in a Scottish F.A. cup final on the way. Their appearance in the top tier of Scottish football shocked the game, they even qualified for Europe, but it had some drawbacks in that home games had to be played at Motherwell’s ground due to their own stadium not meeting grading regulations. A round trip of over 150 miles for home supporters from a town of around 3000 didn’t generate the money to pay for the team which had to be heavily subsidised by Brook Mileson and other board members. It couldn’t last and when Mileson became ill and the money stream dried up they were placed in administration in March 2008. By August 2008 the club was liquidated and in November Brook Mileson had died.

But local football fans did not want to see the club gone forever and formed Gretna 2008, initially playing in the East Of Scotland League but gaining entry to the Lowland league in 2013, where they sit today.

Tranent by contrast were formed in 1911 and were a continual force in Scottish Junior Football joining the Scottish Pyramid System in 2018;. After winning the premier league of the East of Scotland League they were promoted to the Lowland League where last season they won the Lowland League Cup.

Gretna 2008 F.C. 2 Tranent F.C. 2

Tuesday 17th September 2024 19.45 kick off. Scottish Lowland league.

Raydale Park, Dominion Road, Gretna, Dumfriesshire, DG16 5AP

Anvils v The Belters, 12th v 6th

Gretna; Black and white horizontal hooped shirts with black shorts: Tranent; All Royal Blue strip.

The game was fast and furious from the off with both teams going for a result. Gretna had the best of the early play forcing corners and using the full width of the pitch. I was impressed by the speed and skill of the teams and the engrossing play meant that the first half was over in a flash. Although Gretna had had the best of the play neither team had looked like scoring.

Within a minute of the restart some cross passing in front of goal led to Tranent taking the lead with a curling shot from Gray into the top right hand corner. Gretna were stunned and within 5 minutes it was 2 nil as Tranent’s midfield play moved the ball Mc Gowan who drilled the ball along the ground into the net. Tranent looked the most likely to score again as the half progressed although Gretna were still competing. With 10 minutes left the game turned when Gretna attacked down the right and the waist high cross was not cleared by a Tranent defensive mix up that allowed a Gretna player, Dean Brotherson, to sneak in to score. It was now game on and Gretna piled on the pressure and a few silly fouls and pushing by both teams only raised the temperature.

As some in the crowd made their way to the exit a brilliant cross from the right touch line was met by a Gretna forward unopposed at the back post to head the ball down into the net for two all. Although well into injury time there was still time for the referee to give a yellow card to a Gretna defender for dissent after a coming together of their goalkeeper and a Tranent forward. As this was his second yellow he was ordered off.

A great exciting half that shows real depth in Lowland football and makes a mockery of the very difficult entry opportunities into the SFL. Scottish football should restructure and open up their pyramid system. I really enjoyed the experience.

Unfortunately there were no chips so I had to partake of a Scotch pie. Not a fan of these I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it.