Jack Murray captained the Reserves at Stark’s Park ( Image courtesy of Caledonia Photo )
Tuesday, September 11th, 2018
SPFL Reserve League 2 Stark’s Park, Kirkcaldy
RAITH ROVERS RESERVES 0 BERWICK RANGERS RESERVES 4
Two goals from Marc Molloy and another two from Trialists helped Berwick Reserves to a big win on Raith Rovers’ big pitch on a windy night in Kirkcaldy.
Neither goalkeeper was called into serious action during the opening segment of the match as both sides felt their way on Stark’s Park’s new artificial surface. Rangers’ first dangerous attack came after 18 minutes. Following a home corner, Kieran Jack broke downfield before furnishing Molloy with a good ball, the end result of the move, the visitors’ first corner of the night.
However, Berwick’s supporters amongst the decent sized gathering didn’t have to wait much longer for the first goal. This time, Sean Murphy fed Molloy. Drawing keeper Sam McGuff, he passed across goal where C.TRIALIST ( no. 11 ) beat a home man to it to poke the ball over the line for what turned out to be enough for a half time lead.
Three minutes from half time, Raith missed the chance of drawing level after Michael Mbewe robbed Bruce McCrorie out on the right. Ryan Stevenson’s close range strike looked to be on its way in until the apparently beaten Stuart Allan managed to push it off course.
Inspired by this near miss and whatever was said beneath the stand at half time, Raith began the new half as if capable of giving Rangers the runaround. Another Stevenson shot finished just wide whilst Dylan Tait turned to rattle the bar with a powerful hit from beyond the ‘D’. Their bubble burst somewhat after MOLLOY slotted the ball through McGuff’s legs to make it 2-0 after the hosts gave away the ball inside their own penalty area.
That was on 57 minutes and five later, having noticed that the near post was unguarded, home skipper James Berry nearly scored directly from a corner leaving Allan to scramble to stop the inswinger crossing his line.
Berwick lost Murphy with cramp but went on to increase the margin with two goals inside the final quarter of an hour. McGuff saved from C.Trialist only to be beaten by B.TRIALIST wearing ten. With nine minutes to go, McGuff’s efforts were once again in vain. He made a good one handed save from MOLLOY only for the same player to convert the resulting corner swung over by Daniel Purves.
It almost became a flattering five but Molloy’s header was wide after he waited for the ball to bounce when it was sent over from the left by Murphy’s replacement Gary Windram. With Rangers having purposefully kept the ball on the ground for most of the match, Windram added a new dimension to their play and was unlucky to see Andrew Malcolm fractionally miss connecting with his excellent cross from further out on the same flank.
Berwick Rangers : Allan, Ashford, J.Purves, O’Connor – T, McCrorie, Murray ( capt. ) ( Dempster – T 62 ), Jack ( D.Purves 76 ), Murphy ( Windram 68 ), Molloy, B.Trialist, C.Trialist ( Malcolm 76 )
T = Trialist
** Meanwhile, in the same competition on the same night, former Berwick loan player Jack Hamilton scored five goals in Livingston Reserves’ 7-1 demolition of Stirling Albion’s second string.
