Caledonian Braves 0-1 Berwick Rangers: Free-kick condemns Braves to defeat

Braves are down in 13th place, pointless after two games, following Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Berwick Rangers at Alliance Park, and that’s hard for their head coach Ricky Waddell to stomach.

“Every defeat is frustrating,” Waddell told the Times and Speaker.

“We played OK. It was one of those games that had 0-0 written all over it, and if anybody was going to win the game it would be from a setplay, a corner kick or a free-kick, and it turned out to be that we gave away a crazy free-kick and the boy put it away.

“It’s disappointing from that angle, but obviously we need to pick ourselves up and move on.

“We had quite a few out on Saturday as well, but I still felt I had a good enough team in the starting line-up to go and beat Berwick.

“We didn’t do that. We need to review it.

“There weren’t many chances in the game. I thought we defended well in general.

“We were the better side, created bits and bobs and shaded it in the first half.

“In the second half, we maybe didn’t create as much as I would have liked, but I don’t think they did either.

“It was frustrating that we didn’t get at least a point.

“Sometimes you scrape those games and end up getting the three points, but there are maybe just one or two things not going our way at the moment so we just need to work hard, fight through it and we’re looking forward to Bo’ness United away on Saturday.”

Waddell expects a good test at last season’s East of Scotland Premier Division champions as they have won their opening three Lowland League fixtures.

He added: “I’ve got a strong enough squad to go and beat anybody on our day.

“Bo’ness don’t come into the category of having spent a lot of money but they are a well-established club.

“They have started the league well, so it will be a tough game for us for sure, but no team in the league holds any fear for us.”