Academy patron Gordon Strachan spent Saturday at the Academy in his first visit since we opened.  In the morning Academy manager Douglas Samuel along with Hugh Cullen and Daniel Sheilds from our “Young Team” of volunteers showed him round then he watched the Under 9s/Under 10s training on the synthetic pitch.  We also spent time chatting through all our various Community programmes.  Gordon was particularly excited by our “Street Football in a Safe Place ” initiative.  “For us to produce better players kids need to be playing more often in small sided games, with no pressure and having fun.  We did this for years…kids will soon improve their first touch and how to control the ball if they play for hours with a few mates and a goal to shoot into”.  After lunch he “enjoyed” our game against Tynecastle but was disappointed with the result.  The last time he saw us was at Love Street when we lost 3 – 0 so he’s looking for us to at least score the next time he comes back.  He’s keen to stay involved now that he has a little more time on his hands.  He let us to head through to Hampden to lecture on the Pro Licence course yesterday morning before a flight to London for MOTD2.

Gordon - Saturday visit

Mike says

“The way yesterday’s game was going to pan out was there for all to see from the first blow of Mark Doyle’s whistle, quicker that Usain Bolt can run 100 metres in fact. I don’t know who won the toss but we took the centre. Tynecastle had two players ready to attack the lay back yet despite being aware of that we couldn’t get the ball into our opponents half.

Tynecastle scored in eight minutes but the writing was on the wall for the kick off. We hardly got over the halfway line in that period and the tone for the game was set. I was impressed by Tynecastle yesterday as I’m sure all those watching were. They deserved to win the game and win it they did.

For our part Sam and I continually pick the wrong team, pick the wrong formation, tinker with the team too often, don’t sign the right players and so on and so on. We get constructive criticism from some people when we win so we know we will take a bit of stick when we lose.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and if they have an avenue to express that opinion I’m happy for them to use it.  As at every club the management need to know what the fans are thinking.

Sam and I failed yesterday but not in the team selected, nor in the formation we set out or in the players we have signed and were available. We’d pick the same team and formation against Tynecastle tomorrow if we were given the opportunity.

Where Sam and I failed was in not getting over to the players how hard they would have to work to get the opportunity to play the football they can play.  After five minutes it was there for all to see that one team was really up for the game and the other team was us. We became introverted, lost our collective confidence and never recovered.

I don’t know about Sam but it took me about four days to recover from the Whitehill game. Last night was different. As Craig said “it was a bad day at the office” but Sam and I believe in this squad of players. We don’t wear the mantle of favourites too well and we hit the top of the league way too soon. This is going to be a hard league to win but write us off at your peril.

Friday and Edinburgh City can’t come quickly enough.”

Our Womens team today beat Inverness 2 – 0 in league action.  Di barry and Cristy Scott scoring the goals.

In EoS Under 19 league action the score it was a 2 – 2 draw between us and Tynecastle.  Andrew Sinclair and Matt Pringle scoring our goals.  Tynecastle scored first nefore we went ahead, the Tynecastle equlaiser coming in the 85th minute of an exciting game.

Our Womens team head to Inveness in SWPL action while our EoS 19s get their league capaign up and running against Tynecastle with a 2pm ko at City Park.

Tynecastle beat us 2 – 0 today at Ainslie Park in a disappointing performance. 

Two changes in the starting line up with Ross Archibald in for Stewart Fowlie and Alex King returning for Sean McAuley.  Tynecastle started brightly at scored after ten minutes with a drive from the edge of the box.  As the first half progressed we had most of the ball and created a few half chances but with little cutting edge.  Donal Henretty and Keith McLeod both had shots blocked in one goalmouth frenzy but Tynecastle were ahead at half time.

The second half started in similar fashion, we had most of the ball but Tynecastle showing great discipline.  They then scored a second on the hour mark and despite a number of corners their ‘keeper didnt have a difficult save to make as the clock ran down.

Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell, Archibald, Gerrard, McKibben (Hoskins 62), Manson (McAuley 68), King, McLeod, Kader (Sivewright 62), Henretty, Malin Sub not used: Fowlie

Attendance 168

The Juniors came back from 2 – 0 down against Pumpherston to draw 2 – 2 in the last ten minutes.  We played poorly and it was only in the last 20 minutes when we showed more quality and commitment.  Adam Perry and Kenny Young scored the goals. Team: Trialist, G Young (Bannon), McLeod, Antoni, Hutchison, Moffat, Scott, Douglas (Reid), Robertson (Cartwright), Perry, K Young Sub not used: Thomson

Our Saturday amateur team went down 3 – 2, losing another last minute goal.  Finlay Clark scored both our goals.

As reported in the Evening News tonight the Academy has just been awarded £900k from the Scottish Investment Fund.  The funds, 50% of which is loan funding, will be used to restructure our finances and help us to further develop our work in the community.  In particular we will purchase a multi-sport mobile pitch to be used both within the Academy and to take into schools, community centres and other areas in North Edinburgh.  The pitch is suitable for sports such as basketball, hockey and even cricket so Development Officer Kenny Cameron will have to throw away some of his prejudices!!   The funding will also enable us to develop the South West corner of the site, hopefully creating a flexible area which could be used for many different sports.  

Before making the award Social Investment Scotland reviewed in detail both the work we have been doing in the last 9 months and our future plans.  They were very impressed with how quickly we have made an impact.  Local youngsters are far more active in a variety of ways, and there has been a marked reduction in Police call outs for nuisance calls and indeed knife crime. 

Brandon signing his player contract for "Street Football in a Safe Place"

Our Kickstart programme for local unemployed youngsters which ran in early Summer

Tonight’s article by Adam Morris.. ”The community facility has been granted £900,000 from the Scottish Government which will lead to the new facilities and more coaches being hired.

It is the latest in a series of major investments in the club’s revamped Ainslie Park base, and it marks the completion of a project which was kicked off by Scottish football legend Gordon Strachan, who comes from the area.

Spartans chairman Craig Graham said: “The funding package secures our immediate financial position and allows us to implement our plans for growing the work we do in north Edinburgh.

“We have more than 1,500 people using the academy every week across a range of sporting and learning activities, and we are already delivering real benefits.

“This funding will help us to extend into new sports such as basketball and skateboarding, and extend our outreach community programme with the coaches working on site in youth clubs, community centres and schools.”

Much hope has been placed in the Pilton Drive facility by local politicians and community leaders, both to improve the health of local people and get youngsters off the streets.

North Edinburgh is one of the poorest areas in the city and has a litany of social and health problems.

But that could change now with the provision of an all-weather pitch, grass pitch and five-a-side football facilities.

A physio base, eight changing rooms, an education room and a capacity of 3,000 has also boosted the area, as well as the amateur football club which has aspirations of joining the Scottish Football League.

Alistair Davis, a spokesman for Social Investment Scotland, which provided the grant, said: “We’re delighted to announce this latest investment from the fund and, moreover, to be able to assist such an outstanding project which will deliver first-rate work in the community.

“Many young people face a range of challenges in contemporary society and projects such as the Spartans Academy can make a huge difference in terms of making sure young people are given the help and support required to realise their full potential.”

Spartans open their league campaign at home to Pumpherston tomorrow. Junior’s manager Mark Lamb shares his thoughts before the game.

“I’m very excited about the league starting. We’ve done a lot of work over the summer and we’re delighted to have brought in the players we have. Having Adam Perry and Michael Moffat return to us from the senior side is a massive boost and these two players will be a huge influence for us over the season ahead.

This is our first year in the Junior leagues and we expect it to be a very hard season ahead. Our aim is to consolidate our position within the leagues and look to learn and grow with each passing game.

Tomorrow we welcome Pumpherston who recently visited City Park in the league cup. Despite us winning 4-1 the game was close and Pumpherston certainly had chances to score. We will have to be at our very best to have any chance of a result against them as they are a very well organised and established Junior side.”

Spartans Juniors play Pumpherston at City Park tomorrow, kick off is 2:30 and tickets are £4/£2