Early look ahead to Sunday’s Cup Final

Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Co-manager Mike Lawson is already loking forward to this Sunday’s SFA Regional Cup Final at Meadowbank. 

“Everyone involved with Spartans is looking forward to our “big” cup day on Sunday at Meadowbank.

We are well aware the University side we line up against will have a different look and more importantly a different outlook from that we faced a couple of Saturdays ago.

When two teams meet twice in a short space of time the second result can be influenced by the mental attitude of both sets of players to the first game.

Our players will hear the “Celtic and St Mirren” parable a few times in the run up to the final.  We are also well aware that the last time the two teams met in a cup final the attending students came out on top.

I watched a resilient performance from an under strength University side against Edinburgh City on Wednesday and I’m sure the 4-1 score line to the students surprised a few. City are a good side and the Uni had to defend stoutly before picking the Meadowbank side off on the break.Another lesson for our players.

As for the availability, David Etale played in an Army side which went down 2-1 to the Navy at Fratton Park on Thursday and has another game before heading back to Edinburgh, unfortunately ruling him out of Sunday’s game. Dean Hoskins and Struan Preston are both doubtful and another first team player hopes to recover from a knock taken on Tuesday against the Seconds. We hope all three will be there and available at kick off time.

Whatever the outcome of the final, we know the game will be played in the right spirit between two kindred clubs.”

The game kicks off at 2pm.