Why the hell do I bother spending my time and money travelling 100s of miles to watch Berwick Rangers? As Bromley fans you've probably asked a similar sort of question and considered it as stupid a question as asking why William Hague is a small balding pseudo-Nazi or why certain individuals consider a strong dislike of Sutton United as somehow irrational. Apart from the fact (as those who know me at both Berwick and Bromley will testify) I am one of the sad few who still considers themselves a Meadowbank Thistle fan, Berwick has always held a special place in my heart. When a fellow Meadowbank fan started watching Berwick I was filled with memories of the infamous "riot" at a Meadowbank-Berwick game a few years earlier, went along for the day and ended up going regularly since then.
Having watched Meadowbank, where supporters were formed into more cliques than can be found at your average Bromley home match, the great thing about Berwick was and is the behaviour and general attitude of the fans. There's no bad behaviour as such, apart form the odd bout of drunkenness, but Berwick fans stand out from most other fans in the Scottish leagues by, believe it or not, actually giving a toss about the result. Recent visitors to Shielfield have included Albion Rovers fans saying "I don't care about the result, I'm only here for the banter" and East Fife fans spending almost an entire game repeating Berwick chants of "East Fife's staying down" despite being promotion contenders at the time. Then, despite saying they don't care, most of the teams end the day putting in official complaints to Berwick about the home supporters generally being loud, accusing them of being unhygienic (hello Cowdenbeath!!), or something suitably insignificant. God knows what they would have made of the "friendly discussions" that have gone on at Hayes Lane in the past. I know we all supposedly live in some sort of idyllic post-modern world where truth is relative and passion at football is truly passe, but if you don't give a toss about the result then you might as well sit at home drinking coffee.
On the pitch things have been going well for the team too. A couple of years ago when Berwick were languishing near the foot of the bottom division I attended the FA Cup tie between Hayes and Bromley. Having had to put up with Stu's continuous comments during the previous season about how Bromley could easily wipe the floor with Berwick, I was slightly pissed off to realise that Stu was probably being generous to Berwick in his assessment! Chances are Bromley would have put three or four past Berwick at that time without much difficulty...
Things, however, have changed since then - we've got more young talent than you'll see on Gary Glitter's computer, a bit of experience from higher leagues, and are now looking for a second consecutive promotion. Our chairman is popular on the terraces (with most of the board having been regulars in the home supporters area "The Ducket" only a few years ago) and the only question mark is over the manager. Despite being touted as one of Scotland's young promising managers, Paul Smith has not really done anything to convince anyone he is as good as he's made out to be. He seems to have regular fall-outs with anyone under the age of 23, and tactics go out the window if we go a goal behind. If Smith manages to inspire the players and stop them getting sent off every week we should expect a place in the top half of the league without too much difficulty.
In addition to the football being on the way up we've also been blessed with promotion to a division where every single away trip promises to be a booze filled odyssey. Any trip to Glasgow is made a wee bit more "special" (as in "special brew") by a trip to The Goose where inadequates who've been scraped off the gutter queue up until 11 o'clock opening to buy ridiculously cheap pints. In addition there's the Queens Park social club where a couple of years ago we took the piss out of their ceramic frog trophy (what type of football competition gives out a huge porcelain amphibian as a prize??), stole another trophy, filled it with lager and passed it round the table, drinking to the chant of "one cup of glory". Arbroath is home of the best pub in Scotland while any trip to Stranraer (East Ireland) can only be made bearable by starting drinking at 8.00 am. The other grounds hold fond memories of cheap pints, cheaper pool tables and similarly stupid behaviour as well.
Taking all into consideration it looks like it could be a pretty enjoyable season for Berwick (and hopefully Bromley if you get your behind the scenes problems sorted out) with a few pints and some quality football. I know a few of you are planning on missing the delights of Yeading to watch Berwick-Clydebank and can only hope that there's a good atmosphere, lots of beer, and we come away with three points. See you all soon...
--Mr Leam