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Archive for January, 2009

Our February School Break Community Programme

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

The academy is delighted to announce our programme for the week commencing 16th February. There will be structured sessions for 3 to 14 year olds with sessions both in the mornings and afternoons.

Little Dribblers

An introduction to football, this course has been carefully designed to promote motor and social skill development for children 3-4 years old. With a series of fun practices focusing on movement, small sided games and basic football activity this course is a great way to get pre-school children involved in the national game during the school holidays.

Junior Soccer School

Participants receive 2 hours of expert coaching each day, over a 5 day period. Each day is themed with a different aspect of the game, for example passing, heading or 1v1’s. Each day will also include lots of small sided games and shooting routines to allow young footballers the chance to score lots of goals. Participants are split into their own age group so that they learn and develop amongst children of similar physical ability.

SCFA 5 A-Sides

Our 5 a side sessions include a variety of small sided games and developmental fours with participants experiencing more touches of the ball, decision making situations and more 1v1’s.

Timetable

10am-11am – Little Dribblers (age 3-4 yrs old) – 16th to 20th February, cost for the week £20.
10am-12pm - Junior Soccer School (5-8 yrs old) – 16th to 20th February, cost for the week £30.
10am-12pm – SCFA 5 A-Sides (9-14 yrs old) – 16th to 20th February, cost for the week £30.
1.30pm-2.30pm – Little Dribblers (age 3-4 yrs old) – 16th to 20th February, cost as above.
1.30pm-3.30pm - Junior Soccer School (5-8 yrs old) – 16th to 20th February, cost as above.
1.30pm-3.30pm - SCFA 5 A-Sides (9-14 yrs old) – 16th to 20th February, cost as above.

If you would like to book a place on one of the above courses now, please contact Debbi McCulloch (Academy Football Development Officer) or Kenny Cameron (Academy Community Programme Manager) on 0131-552-7854.

The local lads we treated to a trip to Airdrie!

Physio at the Academy

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Leisel in action

We are delighted to announce that Leisel Lippstreu starts her Physiotherapy business at the Academy this week. Leisel is one of Scotland’s top sports physiotherapists having worked with the Scottish Hockey team amongst others. She is a sports fanatic and has been capped for both South Africa and Scotland in different ”Touch Rugby” World Cups the last one playing for Scotland back home in South Africa. Leisel will work across the club as well as with Lothian NHS to help their health programmes across North Edinburgh.

To book an appointment with Leisel call her on 0845 0345564 or on 07880 614681. She also has a clinic in Causewayside and she’s looking forward to working with all the Spartans family. Her website is www.edinburghphysiotherapy.co.uk. If any of you are looking for a physio do call Leisel.

Away win for Women’s 1st XI

Monday, January 19th, 2009

We moved closer to Celtic at the top of the Premier League with a 3 – 0 away win over Dundee Utd yesterday. The goals came from Claire Crosbie (2) and Diana Barry.

Claire - snappy brace

It is very tight at the top of the league – we have two games in hand over Celtic but are eight points behind them, Glasgow City are also tucked in just behind us. The games between the top three plus Hibernian will determine who takes home the league title. This week we are at home at the Academy with a 1pm kick off in a league game against Aberdeen. Admission is free with programmes for £1.

Magical Moffat strike seals Spartans Win

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Plean 0 – Spartans 1

East of Scotland Cup Round 3

A long range strike from Michael Moffat sealed Spartans place in the last 16 of the Bathroom Planet East of Scotland Cup. In a game that Spartans once again failed to take their chances in front of goal.

Spartans dominated the first half without troubling the Plean keeper on too many occasions, Looking dangerous on the break it looked like it would be a comfortable progression to the last 16 but a plucky Plean side refused to go down easily. Spartans should have opened their account when Moffat was set free on a quick counter attack. He outpaced the sweeper who tried to pull him down and had he succeeded would have seen red. Moffat managed to hit the keeper legs with Gary Bannon standing with an open net beside him. Scott was next to test the keeper with a bullet header and the Plean No 1 did well to tip over.

The second half started in similar fashion as Spartans held the bulk of the possession but failed to convert their early chances. Plean did play better in the second half but there were very few clear cut chances before Spartans scored what turned out to be the winning goal. Moffat, the earlier culprit saw the keeper off his line and struck a fine yet deceptively slow moving 25 yarder. The keeper who had done well up until the point looked as though his attention was diverted waving at a local friend on his way to convert his Post Office vouchers into Tennants Super and Rizla. To the delight of the travelling Spartans army, the visitors were now ahead.

Spartans should have kicked on from here and Moffat managed to fail to convert a Bannon Cut back, Mitchell hit arguably the worse shot of the season (so bad the ref awarded a corner), Scott had a long range effort comfortably saved and Reid (described by the Plean faithful as a Posh Irishman) had an effort palmed over the bar.

In an effort to finish the growing number of chances Lamb brought on Perry and Forbes. Perry, with his white boots and powder puff challenges made little impact. Forbes managed to get in behind the back four and with Reid standing with an open net decided to play for a corner off the keeper’s legs rather than wrap up the win.

Plean did have a long range effort sail over the bar and a goal mouth scrmable was punted clear by Steele in the dying minutes. Overall, on a bumpy pitch Spartans proceeded to the next round. The defence was strong, Bannon who ‘failed to sprinkle his magic dust’ always a good outlet for him to run the ball out of the pitch or into a defender and Sam Scott was given the green light to impersonate a headless chicken in the middle (left, right, upfront and in front of the abck four).

The win was soured by the news that a 50-50 contested by Jim Rae left a Plean player with a fractured ankle and ligament damage and the club wish him a speedy recovery. On top of this the 2′s have followed in the illustrious footsteps of the 1′s leaving the sub suits in Plean which Sutherland has kindly offered to pick up this week (as he may need one on Sat!)

Next up is Liberton AVU in the last 16 on Saturday

Team: Paterek, Burns, Sutherland, Steele, Rae, Bannon (Forbes), Mitchell (Perry), Scott, Boyes, Moffat (Douglas), Reid

Subs not used: Zuk

MOM: tough call – possibly Steele or Sutherland for keeping the shots to a minimum

Something completely different…

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

There’s a post on the forum about our most famous supporters….we just received an email from the up and coming Edinburgh band Saint Judes Infirmary. They are all football fans but their all allegiances never allowed them them cheer on the same team….until now. Inspired by a trip to Prague they discovered FK Bohemians Prague. It was a team fans of both Slavia and Sparta fans would stand shoulder to shoulder and cheer on. They thought there must be more teams like this back home, a team that they could get behind passionately without it turning nasty.
They discovered The Spartans.
At the same time they were writing a song called Little Sparta, part inspired by the art exhibition by Ian Hamilton Findlay, partly by the tarnished grandeur of old Edina and somewhat by broken hearts.
The thoughts of the football club and the song became entwined as they set about recording it. The song is about to be released and will be played at the Cabaret Voltaire, with a guest dj spot from Ian Rankin on Thursday 22nd : Doors 7pm. It is free free entry with a drinks promotion.
The band might well become our most famous supporters, this is the link from the evening news story :

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Rankin–writes-a-new.4846137.jp

They have sent through a copy of the song to play on match day…obviously when we get to Ainslie Park! They aren’t looking for favours, in their words they “just wanted to complete the circle by handing back a bit of our inspiration.”

www.saintjudesinfirmary.com

www.myspace.com/saintjudesinfirmary

19s go down to City

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

The 19s lost 6 – 3 to Edinburgh City in the League cup today. Neil Cameron, Scott McDonald and Steven Philp scoring the goals. We’ve gone through to the semi finals but it will be tough to beat City. They have won all their domestic games this season and are a really good team.

Mixed days in the Cups

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

The 1st XI crashed out of the King Cup after missing chances at home to Easthouses. We dominated the first half but the Easthouses ‘keeper had several tremendous saves…as the ref said to him at the end of the game…”make sure you buy a lottery ticket tonight”! Gavin hit the post then put one wide with the goal gaping. Nicky and Cloudie both missed “one on one’s” but it wasnt to be. We started the second half well and the keeper saved again from Keith before a long ball caught us out. Chris missed his kick and the Easthouses striker tapped into the net. Worse was to follow in the 63rd minute when Easthouses scored again when we looked flat footed from another through ball. We didn’t created much after that but were given a golden opportunity with eight minutes left. Donal was fouled but from the spot Keith’s effort was saved. We continued to drive forward but it was Easthouses who looked more like scoring on the break.

Team: Flockhart, Archibald, Gerrard (Kader 74), O’Donnel, Fowlie, Malin, King (Devlin 74), Manson, McLeod, Walker, Henretty Subs not used: Hair, Preston, Hoskins

The 2nd XI won a hard fought East of Scotland Round 3 game at Plean by one goal to nil. Michael Moffat driving home from outside the box in the 78th minute.

Michael Moffat

The 3rd XI won their Logan Cup tie against Heriot Watt Uni 2nd XI 5 – 2 after extra time. Goals came from Steve Malin (2), Finlay Clark (2) and Garth Fitzsimons. It was 1 – 1 after 90 minutes before we eventually started taking the chances.

Steve Malin

Game on at City Park today

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

The pitch is soft but passed an early morning inspection, ko 1.30pm

Looking for more celebrations today

Action for Saturday 17th January

Friday, January 16th, 2009

The 1st XI are back in domestic action with a King Cup game against Easthouses at City Park tomorrow, ko 1.30pm Coach Mike Irving is looking forward to the game “the boys have been upbeat in training this week and we will need to be focused tomorrow to get a result. Easthouses were tough opponenets when we played them just before Christmas. Although we won comfortably in the end they gave us some worrying moments in the first half. We were delighted with our second half performance last week but we need to do more with set pieces. Our delivery is good but we need to make better runs and be more threatening.”

Will the Easthouses goalie look so unhappy tomorrow

Struan Preston and Sam Woods have both trained twice this week and return to the squad. Omar Kader picked up a knock playing for Heriot Watt Uni on Wednesday and ‘skipper Stewart Fowlie’s back is still troublesome. International clearance still hasn’t come through yet for David Etale. Youngsters Ewan Smart and Brad Snodgrass drop back into the 19s squad for their game on Sunday. The squad for tomorrow: Flockhart, Archibald, Gerrard, Fowlie, Hoskins, Manson, Devlin, Woods, Preston, King, Malin, O’Donnel, Walker, McLeod, Hair, Henretty, Kader

On the back of last Saturday’s fantastic travelling support we’re hoping for another big following tomorrow. Supporters are welcome in the bar at the Academy before and after the game.