Sunday 21st December

Posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Results

Mon 15th Dec

1st XI Scottish Cup R3 Elgin City 1 Spartans 2 (Omar Kader, Gavin Malin)…another famous cup win which certainly made the return bus journey a bit shorter than the one two weeks ago. The players competed well against a much more physical Elgin team and we looked really dangerous on the break. Well done to the players and coaching staff and roll on Airdrie…just a visit to Hampden one day on the week before the game to find out our fate from the Deano registration problem!

Sat 20th Dec

1st XI League Spartans 3 (Gavin Malin, Robbie Manson, OG) Lothian Thistle 2…a tough encounter with us scoring two in the last 15 minutes to secure victory in front of our largest crowd of the season. Another goal and another booking for Gavin. They certainly pushed us hard and it took two set pieces for us to equalise then score the winner

Sun 21st Dec

Under 19 League Cup Spartans 6 (Chris Smith , OG, Michael Kirkland 4) Civil Service Strollers 5….a hectic game on the FieldTurf with us nearly always ahead but leaking goals every time we scored

Fixtures

Sat 27th Dec

1st XI League Spartans vs Edinburgh City ko 1.45

2nd XI Friendly Spartans vs TBA at the Academy ko 11.30

Tue 30th Dec

Friendly 1st XI Spartans vs Newtongrange Star at the Academy ko 8pm

News

1. Looking ahead to the trip to Airdrie on the 10th of January. For a variety of reasons we really want to take a massive following. Obviously the better our support the more inspiration it will be to the players and in addition Mr Ballantyne their Chairman didn’t believe we took 1000 to Paisley for the St Mirren game…we might not get that many but lets see if we can get pretty close. Cameron is organising the buses which will leave from the Academy…to book use the banner on the website or call him on 07962 353645. It will be cash at the gate…from their website it appears the away supporters get the stand across from the main stand.

2. Football Nation – some of you may have notcied a Friday item on our website with a 10% discount voucher for all stock at Football Nation in Lothian Road…they have a full selection of football gear as well as all our merchandise

3. Some of you will notice that Mark has set up a new Spartans forum. The link is www.spartansfc.com/forum/. Loads of chat topics including one for Mike, Sam and the coaches to explain their perspective on the games, selection, formation etc.

4. The King Cup Round 2 was drawn today…we have Easthouses in Round 1 and if we win another cup game against Edinburgh Uni in Round 2 at home.

5. The EoS Select was named this week for a friendly on 29th December with no Spartans players in it…with the Airdrie game coming up and no competitive game on 3rd January our friendly against Newtongrange Star is a a critical part of the build up so Mike has asked that our players weren’t considered

6. Training this week – only Tuesday, apparently everyone wants a day off on Thursday…just the 1s, 2s and 3s on the FieldTurf between 7 and 9 on Tuesday.

Finally Happy Christmas from everyone at Spartans. It has been a rollercoaster year…cup success for the 1s and 2s at the end of last season but no league win for the 1s and relegation for the 2s. After the frustrating SFL bid and delays on the Academy it was a long Summer but the new season has started well across all the teams with the Scottish Cup run and the Academy opening making it a great finish to the year. Thanks to everyone who volunteer their help across the club…across our 480 youngsters, our two Womens teams, our three mens teams and our Community programme…with the Academy open its a great time to be a Spartan.