AS bad weather continued to sweep the country, Berwick saw two games go the way of so many others this week.
Saturday's scheduled match at Coatbridge against Albion Rovers was called off following a 10am pitch inspection, when it was discovered that there was up to two inches of water lying on the Cliftonhill surface.
And Tuesday's home game against Livi
ngston, which had been re-arranged from the turn of the year, was also postponed because of a waterlogged/frozen pitch.
Concerns were expressed over the condition of the Shielfield pitch as early as Saturday, and with no real improvement by Monday an official inspection was called for.
The opposition and the SFL had been informed and the inspection was held on Tuesday morning when the game was officially called off.
There has been growing concern about the Tweedside playing surface for over a year now, and only recently it was announced by the club that they are to carry out extensive drainage work during the summer.
The match against Albion has now been provisionally re-arranged for next Tuesday (March 9) subject to SFL approval, but as of yet there is no date for the re-staging of the Livingston fixture.
Berwick already have two other re-arranged dates confirmed - they are: Tuesday, March 23 away to Forfar; and Tuesday, April 6 home to Stranraer.
Meanwhile, Berwick have completed the signing of 20 year-old midfielder Jordan Cropley, who has joined the club until the end of the season. This follows on from the arrival of Jay Shields who re-joined the club the previous week after spells with Hibernian, Dundee, Morton and Cowdenbeath.
But as these two players arrive, it looks as if another has left. Defender Harry McGregor, who has been on loan from Dunfermline for an extended period, is set to return to The Pars this week.
McGregor, whose initial month's loan spell coincided with the snow, failed to make the breakthrough with the Black and Gold and only played one full game, at left-back in the 2-0 home defeat to Annan.
Cropley played as a trialist at Elgin recently and has been training with the club for several weeks, having played for a Hibs XI in a pre-season friendly against Rangers at Shielfield.
He is the son of former Hibs stalwart Alex Cropley who played for the Edinburgh side in the 1970s before going on to play for Arsenal, Aston Villa, Newcastle (on loan), Toronto Blizzard and Portsmouth.
Cropley was likely to have been included in the squad for the weekend visit to Coatbridge, but will now have to wait until this weekend's trip to Hampden before making his official debut appearance when Rangers face another vital game against Queen's Park.
Berwick will go into the game without Paul Currie, who is still waiting to serve the second game of a two-match suspension after he was sent off against Forfar recently.
And with goalkeeper Mark Peat still a big doubt, Ian McCaldon is likely to fill in between the posts.
There is also still a doubt over full-back Steven Notman, but Rangers will welcome back Alan Brazil for his first full game in almost three months.
The striker has not played a full 90 minutes since he limped off in a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of East Stirling on December 12.
It is an injury which has coincided with Berwick's slump which has seen them slip to the edge of the play-off race and manager Jimmy Crease is naturally delighted to welcome him back to the team.
"Alan came on for the last half hour against Annan recently and he added a new dimension to our play," said Crease.
"It will be good to have him back in from the start and hopefully it will help us kick-start our season again.
"We have lost our last four home games, something which no one really expected after the start we made to the season, and of course our loss of form has also come about as a result of the heavier pitches caused by the weather.
"We showed on a recent visit to Ochilview, where we played East Stirling on the plastic pitch, that we are still a good footballing side. We like to get the ball down and pass it, but unfortunately the surfaces have been so badly cut up and wet recently that we haven't been able to do that.
"We are at Hampden on Saturday to face Queen's Park. It will be another difficult game, but hopefully the pitch at the national stadium will be in a decent enough condition to enable us to play the kind of game we like.
"We have lost our way since the new year, there is no doubt about that, but we are still in the hunt for a play-off place. What we need to do is regain our confidence, because it has taken a bit of a battering recently.
"Confidence plays a big part in any team's game and we are no different."
