Eight Goals In Four Days: Inside Rangers Pre-Season Surge Under Kevin Haynes

Pre-season football is rarely a reliable barometer of anything. Friendlies are for fitness, for shaking off the rust of a summer break, for finding out which trialist can be trusted and which cannot. Scorelines are usually treated as footnotes, filed away and forgotten by the time the serious business of a competitive campaign begins. But every so often a club puts together a run of results in July that is simply too emphatic to wave away as meaningless conditioning work — and that is precisely the position Berwick Rangers find themselves in as the 2026-27 season edges into view.

Eight goals scored in four days. Two clean sheets. Two different opponents from Northumberland dispatched with a ruthlessness that has caught the eye of supporters at Shielfield Park who spent much of last season fretting over results rather than celebrating them. A 5-0 demolition of Ashington on the Saturday, followed by a 3-0 win over Stobswood Welfare in midweek, has given manager Kevin Haynes exactly the kind of pre-season momentum he was hoping to build heading into a new Scottish Lowland Football League East campaign. For a club that has known its share of struggle since dropping out of the senior Scottish football pyramid, this has been a summer of rare, uncomplicated good news.

The Weekend Rout: Berwick 5-0 Ashington

Saturday’s fixture at Shielfield Park pitted Berwick against Ashington, a fellow Northumberland side, in what was originally billed as a routine pre-season workout. It turned into anything but. Greg Binnie, increasingly a talismanic figure in this Berwick side, scored twice, while Mikey Mbewe, Josh O’Connor and Danny Handling all got themselves on the scoresheet as the hosts ran out convincing 5-0 winners.

What made the performance more remarkable was the weather Berwick had to play through. The conditions at Shielfield were, by Haynes’ own description, close to biblical. <cite index=”10-1″>Berwick Rangers battled through a “biblical” downpour and stormy conditions to record the win, much to the delight of their manager.</cite> Speaking afterwards, Haynes did not hold back on just how severe the rain had become during the match. <cite index=”10-1″>He said he had never seen rain like it while being involved in a football game, describing it as really, really heavy.</cite>

Despite the deluge, Haynes felt his side produced close to the perfect pre-season display. <cite index=”1″>He told the club’s Facebook page that the friendly had probably been as close to perfect as you’re going to get, though he did have one gripe from the interval team-talk — that Berwick hadn’t scored enough goals for the number of clear-cut chances they had created, estimating five or six proper opportunities went unconverted in the first half alone.</cite>

The scoring involved a spread of contributors that will have pleased Haynes just as much as the final margin. Mbewe, O’Connor, Handling and a Binnie double meant four different players found the net, underlining a Berwick attack that is not solely reliant on one man to fire it into form. <cite index=”10-1″>Haynes singled out summer arrival Mbewe for particular praise, while defender Ben McCrystal — deployed at centre-half for the afternoon — was described by his manager as “different class.”</cite>

Beyond the individual performances, Haynes was keen to stress the collective identity his squad is building. <cite index=”1”>He said he thought his side had been excellent throughout, and that keeping a clean sheet on top of the attacking display was a bonus. He added that Berwick were still going strongly at the final whistle, that fitness levels looked good and their defensive shape held up, leaving him with nothing to complain about from the ninety minutes.</cite>

Midweek Follow-Up: Berwick 3-0 Stobswood Welfare

If the Ashington result could be filed away as an eye-catching one-off, the response three days later removed any doubt that this Berwick side is building something durable. Stobswood Welfare arrived at Shielfield Park for a Tuesday night friendly and were beaten 3-0, with Handling and O’Connor once again among the goals, joined this time by Jamie Pyper.

The repeat involvement of Handling and O’Connor across both fixtures points to a front line that is already gelling nicely ahead of the competitive season, while the introduction of Pyper as a third scorer over the two matches reinforces the sense that goals are currently coming from multiple areas of the pitch rather than a single outlet. For a club that has, in various seasons since dropping into the Lowland League, sometimes struggled for consistent firepower, a front line sharing the goalscoring burden this evenly in pre-season is a promising sign.

Back-to-back clean sheets either side of a combined eight goals scored also speaks to defensive organisation holding up even as Haynes rotates his pre-season squad and experiments with personnel — as he did by using McCrystal at centre-half against Ashington rather than in his more familiar posting.

One Friendly Left Before The Real Business Begins

Berwick’s pre-season programme concludes this coming Saturday with a final workout against Newcastle Benfield at Shielfield Park, kicking off at 3pm. It rounds off a summer schedule that has already included a 1-1 draw with Blyth Spartans on 4 July and a 4-1 win over a Falkirk XI three days later, both played at home. Taken together, that sequence — draw, big win, big win, big win — shows a team whose form has been steadily building rather than peaking too early or fluctuating wildly, which will be exactly the kind of pattern Haynes wants to see with the league season now only a fortnight away.

Once the Newcastle Benfield fixture is out of the way, attention turns fully to the competitive campaign. Berwick begin their new Scottish Lowland Football League East season away to Dundee side Lochee United on Saturday, July 25, with a 3pm kick-off — a trip that will take Haynes’ players a considerable distance north and offer the first real examination of whether this pre-season form can translate into competitive points.

Kevin Haynes: A Manager With Deep Roots At Shielfield

To understand why this pre-season surge means so much at Berwick, it helps to understand the man overseeing it. Haynes is no stranger to Shielfield Park — in fact, few figures currently involved in Scottish football at any level have as layered a relationship with this particular club.

As a player, Haynes was a prolific forward for Berwick between 2005 and 2007 (some accounts have his debut spell running through into 2008), scoring 22 goals in 55 appearances and playing a central role in the side that won the 2006/07 Scottish Division Three title under manager John Coughlin. <cite index=”2-1″>That title-winning campaign remains one of the most fondly remembered spells in the modern history of the club.</cite> His playing career after leaving Berwick also took in spells at Dalkeith Thistle, Preston Athletic and Whitehill Welfare, giving him a broad footprint across Lowland and East of Scotland football before he moved into coaching and management.

Haynes’ first taste of the Berwick dugout came as assistant manager. <cite index=”7-1″>He was recruited by Ian Little as his assistant in the summer of 2019, marking a return to Shielfield Park for a player who was still fondly remembered by supporters from his time as a forward there in the mid-2000s.</cite> He spent two years in that assistant’s role before moving on to management in his own right, taking charge of East of Scotland Football League Premier Division outfit Dunbar United from July 2021.

At Dunbar, Haynes built a reputation that would eventually bring him back to Berwick for a third time — this time as the man in overall charge. <cite index=”6-1″>Reflecting on the switch when it was made, Haynes described it as a new challenge, one that had been presented to him and that he felt ready and excited to take on. He explained that the emotional connection he felt to Berwick Rangers was similar to the one he held for Dunbar United, and that both clubs were places he had thoroughly enjoyed every spell at, whether as a player or a manager.</cite>

The move was not one he took lightly, given how settled he had become in East Lothian. <cite index=”5-1″>He said it was a club he had a strong affiliation with, having been there twice before as both player and assistant manager, and that he was proud to have been appointed by the current board. He added that there were not many clubs he would have left Dunbar United for, but that the chance to step up a level while returning to a club he already had history with had proven impossible to turn down.</cite>

His departure was a blow to Dunbar, where he had built a strong reputation. <cite index=”6-1″>Haynes had been the longest-serving manager among East Lothian’s senior football clubs at the point he left for Berwick, with a statement from Dunbar thanking him and wishing him well as the East Lothian club began its own search for a successor.</cite>

Taking Over A Club In Need Of Direction

Haynes did not walk into an easy job. When he was appointed, Berwick were sitting well down the Scottish Lowland Football League table, and the scale of the rebuilding task in front of him was significant. <cite index=”5-1″>He inherited a side fourth from bottom of the standings, on 21 points from as many fixtures, only seven clear of the relegation place. Berwick had not finished lower than 13th in any season since dropping into the fifth tier back in 2019, and Haynes made it clear he wanted that recent low point to remain the club’s floor rather than become a new normal, expressing confidence that the squad had what it took to challenge for a top-ten finish for the fourth time in five seasons.</cite>

Haynes was careful from the outset to manage expectations among a fanbase eager for instant improvement. <cite index=”5-1″>He asked supporters to be patient as he set about rebuilding the squad, warning that they might not see the fully realised version of the team he wanted to build in the short term, and that there could be some short-term pain before the progression fans wanted to see arrived. His message was that fans needed to allow the process of building a team and a squad to play out, with the club working toward where it wanted to be over time rather than overnight.</cite>

He was equally direct about his football philosophy from day one, setting out clear demands for a possession-based approach built on intensity without the ball. <cite index=”5-1″>He said he wanted his side to be in control of the ball more often and to pass it well, but stressed that achieving that required hard work — the ability to create space, to run, and to have the energy required to win the ball back once it was lost.</cite>

The scale of ambition, in his own words, was straightforward rather than revolutionary. <cite index=”5-1″>He described the short-term goal simply as progression — asking whether the team could catch the sides above them in the table, and whether both the team and the club as a whole could move forward together, driving the whole place in a positive direction.</cite>

Steady Progress Through The Season

The early evidence since Haynes took charge suggests his rebuilding project has gathered real traction. A league win at Cowdenbeath earlier this year offered a clear marker of the resilience Haynes has instilled in his squad, arriving in testing circumstances rather than comfortable ones.

<cite index=”8-1″>Berwick won 2-0 away at Cowdenbeath’s Central Park thanks to a first-half double from Greg Binnie, scored in the second and 16th minutes, securing back-to-back Lowland League victories despite having a player sent off ten minutes into the second half.</cite> Haynes was quick to put the result into context afterwards, pointing to the disruption his squad had faced in the build-up to the match. <cite index=”8-1″>He explained that it had not been a straightforward 2-0 win given how much defending his side had been forced to do, and detailed the adversity the squad had come through that week — illness, injuries, and three players dropping out before kick-off, including one player who failed a late fitness test and another who picked up an injury in the warm-up.</cite> He also praised the versatility shown by a player forced to finish the match out of position at left-back, underlining again his habit of publicly crediting players who step up in unfamiliar roles — a theme that would resurface during this summer’s pre-season programme too.

A record-breaking away performance later in the season further underlined the attacking identity Haynes has been building. <cite index=”9-1″>Berwick beat Gretna 2008 7-2 away from home, with seven different players getting on the scoresheet — Taylor Hendry, Caelan McCrone, Greg Binnie from the penalty spot, Alfie Robinson, Struan Mair, Harry Wright and Ben McCrystal all finding the net at Raydale Park.</cite> Haynes was delighted with both the scoreline and the spread of contributors. <cite index=”9-1″>He told the club’s Facebook page he was delighted with the result and especially pleased that seven different players had got on the scoresheet, noting it had probably been a long time since Berwick had scored seven goals in a match, and that having seven different scorers made the achievement all the more special.</cite>

That pattern of shared goalscoring responsibility — rather than over-reliance on one or two players — is precisely what has carried into this summer’s pre-season friendlies, with Binnie, Mbewe, O’Connor, Handling and Pyper all among the scorers across the wins over Ashington and Stobswood Welfare.

Building The Squad For A New Campaign

Squad turnover has been a consistent feature of Haynes’ time in charge, and this summer has been no exception. Mbewe’s arrival has already paid dividends in pre-season, following on from his big pre-season debut goals last year in a win over Newcastle Benfield. <cite index=”11-1″>He had scored his first two goals for the club in a 2-1 pre-season friendly win away to Newcastle Benfield, with Haynes backing the former Penicuik Athletic and Gretna 2008 winger to add further goal threat to the side. Haynes praised his workrate specifically, saying there was no doubting how hard he worked and how receptive he was to what the coaching staff were asking of him.</cite>

Haynes has also shown a willingness to lean on players filling in outside their regular positions during pre-season, extending praise even when results were closer than the eventual eight-goal, two-game haul against Ashington and Stobswood Welfare. <cite index=”11-1″>During that earlier friendly at Newcastle Benfield, with the side unable to name a specialist substitute goalkeeper, outfield players Jamie Pyper and later Cai MacNamara had to fill in between the posts after the first-choice keeper was forced off with a dislocated finger — and Haynes praised both for adapting to unfamiliar roles, noting that both ended up keeping clean sheets in the position, in contrast to the injured original starter.</cite> He struck a similarly satisfied tone about the state of his squad’s conditioning heading into that fixture. <cite index=”11-1″>He said he was happy with a lot of what he had seen, feeling his side had defended better than they had attacked in that particular game, even though in other outings they had attacked well and created plenty of chances. He added that fitness levels were good and that he was pleased with the overall trajectory of the squad’s preparation.</cite>

Continuity As A Cornerstone

If there is one thread running through Haynes’ public comments across this pre-season and beyond, it is the value he places on squad continuity. Rather than tearing up his group each summer, he has prioritised keeping a core together and building on it incrementally — a philosophy he reiterated after the Ashington win.

<cite index=”1″>He described keeping the majority of the squad together as the biggest positive of the summer, and said he believed there was still more to get out of that group. He wants the players to stick together and to believe they can win multiple games and score multiple goals on a consistent basis, insisting that the guys who have been retained make it easier to integrate any new arrivals. He described the changing room as a very good one and something the club wants to protect, while stressing that any new recruits brought in have to be the right fit — something he said the club had been very conscious of and felt was working well.</cite>

That approach appears to be paying dividends already. The core of players delivering goals this pre-season — Binnie, Handling, O’Connor, alongside newer faces like Mbewe and Pyper — represents exactly the kind of blend between continuity and fresh legs that Haynes set out to build when he first took the job.

A Club That Carries Its Own Weight Of History

Part of what makes any Berwick Rangers story resonate beyond the Borders is the sheer unlikeliness of the club’s existence. Founded in the 1880s and based in the English town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, just south of the border, Berwick have spent almost their entire competitive history playing in the Scottish football pyramid rather than the English one — a quirk of geography rooted in the fact that Berwick sits closer to Edinburgh than it does to Newcastle, the nearest major English city. <cite index=”12-1″>Founded in 1881, or by more recent research in 1884, the club currently plays in the Lowland League East, the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being based in England, and was the only club from outside Scotland in the Scottish Professional Football League until relegation in 2019.</cite>

The club’s most famous moment came six decades ago, and it remains the touchstone against which every subsequent Berwick achievement is measured. <cite index=”20-1″>In January 1967, a team of part-timers beat the great Glasgow Rangers 1-0 in what is widely regarded as the greatest upset in the history of the Scottish Cup, with a record 13,365 fans crammed into Shielfield Park to watch a side including nine full internationals fail to break down the Wee ‘Gers.</cite> That afternoon has never faded from the club’s identity, and it is a piece of history Haynes — as both a former Berwick forward and now the club’s manager — is acutely aware of every time he walks into Shielfield Park.

The road since that famous win has not always been smooth. <cite index=”17-1″>On 18 May 2019, Berwick became only the second club, after East Stirlingshire, to be relegated out of the SPFL pyramid entirely and into the Scottish Lowland Football League, losing 7-0 on aggregate to Highland League champions Cove Rangers.</cite> That relegation ended a run of senior Scottish league membership that had lasted since 1951, and it is the shadow under which every Berwick manager since — Haynes included — has had to operate, chasing a return to a higher tier while first re-establishing stability lower down the pyramid.

It is against that backdrop that this pre-season’s eight goals in four days matter more than a simple set of July friendly scorelines might suggest. For a club still working to rebuild its stature since the disappointment of relegation seven years ago, at a stadium that once hosted 13,000-plus supporters willing their part-time heroes past the biggest club in Scotland, momentum — of any kind, at any time of year — is not something to be taken lightly.

Looking Ahead

With one final friendly against Newcastle Benfield to come this Saturday, Haynes has a last opportunity to fine-tune his squad before the serious business begins away to Lochee United on July 25. The manager’s public comments throughout this pre-season — on fitness, on shape, on the value of a settled dressing room, on the willingness of fringe players to adapt when called upon — all point to a squad that believes it has built something more substantial than a couple of eye-catching pre-season scorelines.

Whether eight goals in four days translates into anything meaningful once Scottish Lowland Football League East points are actually up for grabs remains to be seen. But for a club whose recent history has been defined more by struggle than surges, and for a manager who has now returned to Shielfield Park in three different guises across two decades, this has been about as encouraging a pre-season as Berwick Rangers could have hoped for.