Dunipace FC: Delight as Denny outfit see off Berwick Rangers side from two leagues higher in cup

Goals in each half by Conor Kelly (37 mins) and Tristan McArthur (85 mins) earned ’Pace victory in the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup fourth round tie against a Berwick side who had Alex Harris sent off on 33 minutes for a foul on Dylan Tennant.

"Over the last couple of years we’ve actually done quite well in cup ties,” Moffat told the Falkirk Herald. “We’ve managed to beat a couple of Highland League teams as well.

"I thought we deserved to beat Berwick, the first Lowland League team we’ve beaten since we won the South Challenge Cup two years ago. Spartans beat us 5-0 last year.”

A pair of corners proved to be Berwick’s undoing at Westfield Park last Saturday, with headed goals in each half by Kelly and McArthur seeing ’Pace home.

“You work on these things in training and sometimes they do come off for you,” Moffat said. "Luckily enough they did on Saturday, we managed to score from two setpieces.

"It’s quite unlike us to be honest. We don’t score many goals from setpieces so it was quite pleasing on Saturday to do that.”

Cup cheer is being particularly gratefully received by the Denny side’s fans this season, after the nightmare endured in May when their 4G artificial surface was set alight by yobs in an act of vandalism which caused around £300,000 worth of damage.

However, the club swiftly set up a GoFundMe online appeal which received tremendous backing and, after playing early fixtures in the 2023-24 season away from home, Dunipace reuturned to their newly relaid pitch in late August.

Moffat said: “It’s not easy when you’re going away from home all the time because the pitch at Denny was very good, which helped us because we like to get the ball down and play. We have lost three times in Fife this season – at St Andrews, Lochore and Kirkcaldy – which is something we need to address.

"It was a bit of an upheaval at the time for the club but we just had to go away from home and use facilities elsewhere.

"We’re glad we’re back at our own pitch now. We knock the ball about well.

"The help we got from everybody was really good. Clubs round about us also helped us – Linlithgow, Bo’ness, Sauchie – they went out of their way to let us use their pitches for nothing. We were very grateful for that.

"Because we’ve played a lot of away league games already, we have a run of home games around Christmas time and early in the New Year.

"Around that time we play Camelon, Whitburn and St Andrews (who are all currently in the top three promotion places) so these games are going to be vital.

"It’s important we try and capitalise on that.”

Dunipace, fifth in the table with 25 points from 12 games, have no competitive fixture this Saturday. They will play a home friendly against Sauchie tonight (Thursday).

The Denny side’s next league outing is at home to Newtongrange Star on Saturday, December 2 with kick-off at 2.30pm.