I received the following email from Fraser Todd, who has arranged a charity game this Sunday 18th October at the Academy in memory of his wife’s cousin Martin who tragically passed away at the age of 18 after a long battle with cancer.

Fraser asked if we could publicise the game on the club website, which of course we are more than happy to do.

“I am organising a charity football match against the Hearts Legends in memory of my wife’s 18 year old cousin, Martin Gahagan, who recently passed away after a battle with cancer.

All proceeds are split 50/50 between the Hearts community trust and Teenage cancer trust and we will be wearing celtic style strips in honour of Martin who was a massive celtic fan (even though most of us are Hearts fans!!).

Our team is made up of a group of friends aged 21-28, most of whom have played for Amateur teams in Edinburgh over the years.

Details of the game are below – Please come along and support us and a great cause!

Martin Gahagan memorial team vs Hearts FC Legends
Spartans Academy, Pilton Drive, Edinburgh
Sunday 18th Oct
Kick off 4.15pm

Admission – £3 per person”

Please head along and support this great cause.

Mark Palmer
Spartans Website Administrator

Diaina Barry started the game at centre forward for Scotland last night in a 3 – 0 win over Northern Ireland.  Di didnt score but will hopefully have done enough to be included in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers in November.  Jo Hutcheson was an unused substitute.

The action at Coldstream kicks off tomorrow at  2.30pm as we begin our defence of the South Regional Cup whilst the Juniors head  to Super League team Kelty Hearts for a friendly as they have no competitive fixture.

The Amateurs start their Scottish Cup action tomorrow with a  tough away tie against crack Fife outfit Rosyth Civil Service.

Finally Jim is now in Ward 9 of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Comely Bank and is looking forward a more regular diet of Spartans news…he hasnt yet seen Grim’s handiwork from the last few weeks.

Mike says -

“Playing the same team twice in a row is never easy for either side and if you throw in the biggest cup competition any East of Scotland side can win you get the recipe for a very interesting afternoon’s football. Add to that the fact that Coldstream are at home, can call on four influential players who missed last Saturdays league game at the Academy and you get a real chance of what some people would mistakenly call an upset.

We know it will be a tough game as for more than an hour last week Coldstream held their own against us. They scored a very good goal and caused us more than a few problems until we finally put the game beyond them midway through the second half. Home Park is never an easy place to go and we are well aware of the effort we will have to put in to progress to the next round.

For our part and despite a sloppy start last week we continue to show improving form.  Like the home side however we will make changes from last weeks line up. Alex King, Danny O’Donnell and Donal Henretty are first team regulars who missed last week and they’ll all start at Home Park. Also a doubt about Dan Gerrard’s availability could mean another forced change as Dan is sitting an SFA coaching badge today and tomorrow and as yet we’re not sure if he’ll make it down to the game in time.

As I’ve said many times however, we have seventeen very good players and Sam and I have no qualms about playing any of our first team squad in any game. Whoever starts for us will know that to have any chance of keeping a hold of the South trophy they will have first to match the opposition for effort and commitment.

It promises to be an entertaining afternoon’s football.”

Mike

Just to let everyone know Jim is being flown back up from his Southampton hospital today, and is now in the Western General.  He’s making good progress but we don’t think he’ll quite be fit for the trip to Fraserburgh next Saturday.

Diana Barry and Jo Hutcheson are both in the full Scotland sqauad for tomorrow nights friendly against Northern Ireland.  The game is part of the build up for the World Cup qualifiers which start later in the month against Greece and Georgia.

Not quite so high profile…Phil Green from our Saturday Amateur team has been picked in  the L&E Amateur select squad for tomorrow’s game against the scotland amateur squad at Saughton Enclosure….but Dave Bryce has yet to allow him to miss training!

Stewart congratulating Omar

Our Womens team came from behind to beat Rangers 2 – 1 at the Academy this afternoon.  Rangers took the lead after 56 minutes.  The Rangers striker scored  from a through ball but carried on to collide with our ‘keeper Jo Hutcheson who had to be substituted with central midfielder Danni pagliarulo taking over in goals.  We werent playing well but stuck at it and equalised in the 84th minute when Di barry scored from just outside the box.  The winner came in the dying minutes, a great corss and turn from Di was nodded into the net by Hayley Lauder.

Hayley - winner

Our EoS 19s lost 4 – 1 at Edinburgh City.  We missed a penalty in the first half before they took the lead.  Jamie Walsh equalised for us and it looked like a draw before three goals in the last 5 minutes sealed it for City.

Our Sunday Spartans went down 4 – 0 to Abbey Athletic in the David Temple Cup first round.

We’ve also got a good pic of the celebrations following Omar’s goal yesterday courtesy of Campbell Skinner.

Mike says -

“It took us a while to settle yesterday but we eventually ran out good winners against an under strength Coldstream team. Missing four regulars the Streamers started with a more positive attitude than ourselves and when “Coco” Crawford lashed home the opening goal of the afternoon I guess everyone who have watched Spartans at the Academy this season could be forgiven for thinking “here we go again”. We did settle however and two goals before the break set us on our way.

At half-time Mike was happier with the performance than Sam or myself but the players responded to the co-managers pleadings and played much better in the second period. I thought in the first half we didn’t use the wide areas nearly enough and that trying intricate one twos through the middle was playing into Coldstreams hands. I also thought at times our passing was sloppy on a pitch which is still settling down. Despite recent rain and being watered the Academy pitch is very firm and the leads to a high bounce and a requirement to be more deliberate with our passing.

In the second half we used the wide areas, we passed the ball crisply and with more accuracy resulting in more crosses being delivered and more chances created.

On the playing side Sam and I know we have a good squad of players and with the Scottish coming up we want as many match fit as possible. Omar, Sean and Deano came in yesterday and did well as did every player and substitute used. Next week on a tight Home Park is a whole new ball game and it’s safe to say despite the good result and eventual performance yesterday there will be a few changes to the starting line up at Coldstream.   

With David away on “holiday” we yesterday re-signed both Mark Burns and Struan Preston, one as cover and the other hopefully for our future. I’ll let you guess which is which. And talking of David I actually spoke to him from Afghanistan on Flocks phone after the game which was weird. He was delighted with the result and is settling into is new surroundings. Let’s hope he enjoys his stay and returns home safely”

Mike