Archive for March, 2010
« Previous EntriesNew Kit Deal Completed
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 Spartans are pleased to announce that we have signed a new deal with Colin Campbell to supply all playing and training kit for the club. We have chosen Nike as the brand we will use and we should have a picture of the new shirt posted on the website this week. In addtion to Colin supplying the kit he will give each member of Spartans a 20% discount card for his shop. The coaches from each team will be handing these cards out shortly. More details of how the ordering process will be passed onto each individual sections of the club very soon.Press Speculation
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 In response to press speculation the club have issued the following statement.“”The owners of Cowdenbeath, the Brewster brothers, approached Spartans and a number of other clubs to explore how they resolve the challenges they have. In particular their Central Park ground does not comply with the SFA Licence requirements and the club has insufficient income to invest in the required upgrading. We understand the Brewsters are now exploring their options with the SFL.”
EoS 19s score and date for the WWFC game
Monday, March 29th, 2010 Our EoS 19s went down 3 – 0 to Tynecastle in the league yesterday.The date for our final Seniors league game away to Whitehill Welfare has been confirmed as Saturday 8th May with cup action dominating for us between now and then.
Management thoughts on a good win at Riccarton
Monday, March 29th, 2010 Mike says -“Sam and I were concerned before Saturday that all the talk during the week of a league “decider” against Whitehill would jeopardize our chances of a concentrated, professional performance against Heriot-Watt. We needn’t have worried as a couple of outstanding 15 minute spells of football in each half decide the game in our favour.
For those now eagerly awaiting their “decider” I’m afraid they are just going to have to bide their time as the fixtures announced last night see us in cup action for the duration of April. That may alter if we go out of the League Cup at an early stage but Whitehill are tied up with fixtures through next month so our league game at Rosewell is a long time off.
Back to Saturday and another 6 goals and 5 different scorers which pleased Sam and myself. The pitch wasn’t at it’s best and in the windy conditions the boys take credit for the very good football they played. The 3 points were vital so the quality of the football and the goals scored were an added bonus.
Alex and Stewart should be fully fit for Stirling next week and with Jorge back available Sam and I have another selection headache.
We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Mike
Cup Draws
Sunday, March 28th, 2010 Seniors:King Cup Semi Final – Spartans vs Tynecastle or HWU, to be played on Saturday 1st May at Ainslie Park
League Cup Round 1 – Coldstream vs Spartans to be played on Saturday 10th April, the winner playing Easthouses or Ormiston at home
Juniors
Fife and Lothians Cup Round 3 Spartans vs Arniston Rangers date tba
Goals galore
Saturday, March 27th, 2010 There were wins for the Seniors and Juniors but the Amateurs go down. The Seniors beating Heriot Watt Uni 6 – 0 and the Juniors beating Stoneyburn 3 – 1.The Seniors went 2 – 0 up in the first ten minutes and the score wasn’t in doubt after that. Firstly Robbie Manson scored from close range and then a Gavin Malin through ball was flicked on by Donal Henretty for Keith McLeod to round the ‘keeper to score. The remainder of the half was pretty even but we came out flying in the second half. Robbie headed home a Dean Hoskins corner (our first goal from a corner for quite a few weeks!) and then Donal slid in to knock home a Ross Archibald cross. Omar Kader knocked home the fifth after a great move including a Vinelli-esque flick from Omar in the build up. Ross then scored the sixth at the back post. The students did push on in the last 20 minutes and James hit the bar with a free kick but the game was won by then. The Spartans man of the match was again Omar Kader who was a real threat going forward yet he tackled back with as much venom as he could on more than a few occasions.
Omar - MoM again
Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell, Hoskins, Gerrard, Sivewright, Archibald, Malin (King 72), Manson (McAuley 72), Henretty (Smith 72), Kader, McLeod Subs not used: McGarrie, Fowlie
The Juniors didn’t play well but won comfortably. Nick Reid ended his scoring drought since October with the opener – an overhead kick from close range. Kenny Young added the second before Stoneyburn pulled one back just before the break. Although we had the bulk of possession it took till near the end for the third to come with Struan Preston scoring his first of the season.
Nick - back amongst the goals
Team: Paterek, Cruickshank (G Young), Steele, Scott, McKibben, Roberts (Baxter), K Young, Antoni, Bannon, Reid, Perry (Preston) Subs not used: Boyes, Robertson, Hair, Hutchison
The Amateurs went down 3 – 2 to table toppers Lochend, David Cran and Chris McIntyre getting the goals.
On International duty the Womens team beat Georgia 3 – 1 in the World Cup qualifier with Pauline Hammil starting the game and Di Barry coming on in the second half. Scotland also beat Denmark 2 – 1 in the 19s Euro championship.
Saturday Action
Friday, March 26th, 2010 The Seniors game at Riccarton kicks off at 2.30 and with nearly 100 travelling fans last week we’re looking for another big turn out.The Juniors are at the Academy with Stoneyburn the visitors, ko 2.30pm. Michael Moffat misses out after his injury last week but coach David Cowan is pleased that he has a number of players on the way back. Nick Reid, Struan Preston and Paul Sutherland should all make the squad.
The Amateurs play Lochend on the FieldTurf in a league game. The squad remains threadbare with injuries.
The Women are not in action this weekend as it is an International break.
The A team play Georgia tomorrow away and the Bulgaria at Falkirk on Thursday. Pauline Hammill and Di Barry are in the squad for both games with Hayley Lauder coming into the squad for the home game. The team have started their campaign with two wins and will be looking for another 6 points this week.
The Under 19s play in their Elite qualifying group in Holland this week also. Spartans Head Coach Shelley Kerr is taking with team and Stacey McLean from Spartans is included, unfortunately Sarah Ewens was chosen but is injured. The 19s play Denmark, Holland and Finland for the right to play in the finals in May.
Management thoughts on Heriot-Watt tomorrow.
Friday, March 26th, 2010 Mike says -“This week Sam and I have been telling the players not to take their collective eyes off the ball and that will be repeated several times before the game at Riccarton tomorrow. As Whitehill start to play their outstanding league games and a popular Forum has a thread entitled “The Greatest chase in history” it would be easy for our lot to spend too much time watching the progress of the Rosewell club and forget about the job at hand. Our final league game at Ferguson Park will take care of itself but first and foremost we have to concentrate on a very difficult game against Heriot-Watt.
Only two teams have scored three goals against us in our 29 competitive games so far this season and guess who they are? Yes you have it, Heriot-Watt and our friends from Rosewell. After a slow start as Michael Renwick got to know his players and more importantly they started to return from the long summer break students seem to enjoy, Heriot-Watt went on a long successful run which saw them challenge at the top of the league. They faltered slightly as the bad weather set in but can boast a 5-1 home victory over Preston in their recent league history.
Heriot-Watt have players who can hurt any side with the left foot of Aaron James as good as any in the league. They are driven on in midfield by the industrious Simon Ferrie while Lars Berger up front is maturing into the perfect target man. The University boys definitely know where the goals are and will be out tomorrow to put our title ambitions on hold. Student sides always play with plenty spirit and camaraderie fostered by playing twice a week and growing up together. In that respect Heriot-Watt are a typical university side and we know we’ll have to be at our very best to gain any of the three points available.
For our part we have five ex Heriot-Watt players in our ranks with Gavin Malin still playing for them in the university mid-week league. As well as Gav, Chris Flockhart, Robbie Manson, Omar Kader and Luke Cassidy all played for The “Watt” which adds to the sense of occasion.
Jorge Vinelli is back in Spain for a few days and is unavailable. Captain Stewart Fowlie has been ill and is doubtful while Alex King has re-started training and isn’t very far away. Sam and I will wait until the last minute before selecting the starting eleven.
We are all looking forward to a hard fought game against a typical competitive university side. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Mike
Sunday scores
Sunday, March 21st, 2010 The Womens team beat Forfar 4 – 2 in a league game, goals from Siobhan Rooney, Julie Melrose, Di Barry and Claire Crosbie.Our EoS 19s lost 3 – 1 to Edinburgh City in the league, Andrew Sinclair getting the goal.
The Sunday amateurs also went down in the league, losing 4 – 2 to Duddingston.
Management thoughts on a King Cup victory.
Sunday, March 21st, 2010 Mike says -“First of all we were all very happy in the Spartans dressing room after yesterday’s victory at Ferguson Park. It puts us in our third semi final this year and we can look forward to an exciting last two months of our season. It was a result we would have gladly taken before the game but what of the performance and was it a missed opportunity?
I wasn’t happy at half-time as I thought our passing was sloppy on what looked like a perfect surface. We continually gave the ball away and conceded far too many free kicks near our box. Ferguson Park isn’t the widest and free kicks and throw-ins too easily given away can result in goal chances for the opposition. If I wasn’t happy Sam was even more vocal in his condemnation of our first half performance and to the players credit it was a much better after the break.
This group of players have set high standards after a shaky first month of the season and Sam and I are there to remind them when these standard slip – that is our job.
In the wider picture was yesterday an opportunity lost? As Whitehill and ourselves battle it out for the league title two or three more goals would have given us a psychological edge. As it is it’s 3-3 on aggregate and they can point to any away goal and a sending off which they can say influenced yesterday’s result. We passed the ball much better in the second half even before the sending off and got ourselves in some really good positions. Unfortunately our decision making and final ball let us down too many times. As I say another two or three goals would have given our boys a lift and sewn seeds of doubt in the minds of the Whitehill boys.
The King Cup can go on the back burner for now as we turn our minds to our second last league game of the season against Heriot-Watt at Riccarton next Saturday. Hopefully Stewart Fowlie and Alex King will come back into the reckoning but Jorge Vinelli will miss out as he returns to Spain for a few days. The students found it far too easy to breach our defence in the reverse fixture so we wont be taking them lightly, that’s for sure.
More about that game later in the week.”
Mike
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