The Womens team beat Rangers 5 – 2 tonight in the League Cup quarter final.  The goals came from Di Barry 2, Pauline Hammill 2 and Kristy Scott.

We have drawn Stirling University in the semi final of the South Regional Cup.  The game will be played on Saturday 3rd April at the Academy.  Stirling are obviously going very well in the First Division ths season and it will be a welcome back to Spartans for ex Seniors player and coach Raleigh Gowrie. 

Gretna are at home to Whitehill Welfare in the other semi final.

Reminder to all Spartans that this Saturday sees The Spartans Party happening at ‘The Caves’. Doors open at 8, International DJ Crutches will follow the band till late.

Tickets available from the academy cafe Wednesday and Thursday night or by contacting any of the below.

Dave Bryce 07540050548
Finlay Clark 07773321713
Ross Hutchison 0736052543

Stewart Fowlie also has tickets to sell !

This night is open to everyone across all sections of The Spartans and it would be great to see as many of you there as possible. All friends/partners are also welcome.

The venue address is

8-12 Niddry Street South
Edinburgh
EH1 1NS
Scotland

http://www.thecavesedinburgh.com/find_us.htm

Our Women team comfortably beat Inverness 6 – 0 in the league this afternoonwith goals from Hayley Lauder 2, Di Barry, Pauline Hammill, Claire Crosbie and Julie Melrose.  The Women’s next game is a League Cup quarter final tie this Wednesday (17th) against rangers on the FieldTurf at the academy, ko is 7.45pm.  The final is being played at the Academy in May giving the girls an extra incentive for a run to the final.

The Sunday amateur team went down 3 – 1 to Pentland in the league.

Mike says -

“The ground was very firm yesterday and there was more wind about than we’ve had recently which made it hard for both teams with a high sometimes erratic bounce. Preston are a big team and early on we were vertically challenged as the ball was rarely on the deck but bouncing about above shoulder height. Despite that Sam and I were resonably happy with our start. We didn’t look nervous, we tried to take the game to the opposition and they lived dangerously at times.

I thought Preston went ahead slightly against the run of play but our boys reacted in a positive manner and Gav equalised after a superb turn and cut-back from Cloudie. Archie looking well refreshed after an hour on the bench midweek ended up scoring two and missing out on a hat-trick after the lino’s flag was raised late on. He’d followed up a strike from Eck which brought out one of many saves the Preston keeper made during the afternoon. Deano on the other flank also had a good game and rounded it off by scoring with his right from outside the box.

Preston were always dangerous at set pieces and I only began to relax when Deano knocked in the fourth. 

It’s back to Tuesday and Thursday training this week with a King Cup game at Rosewell to look forward to next Saturday. As a team we are in a rich vein of form and we want to keep that up until the end of the season. I’m sure Whitehill will have something to say about that come Saturday.”

Mike

The Womens team take on Inverness at the Academy on the FieldTurf with a 2pm ko in our first league game of the season.  After the scare at Dundee in the League Cup last week coaches Shelley Kerr and Debbi McCulloch will be looking for a better performance. 

A brief look ahead because our Womens League Cup QF against Rangers will take place this Wednesday at the Academy also on the Fieldturf with a 7.30ko.

The Sunday Amateurs take on Pentland Roadhouse in a league game at Loanhead, again a 2pm ko.

Finally we host a Scottish Cup Under 14 semi-final tomorrow between Tynecastle and Hutchison Vale on the grass stadium pitch with a 2pm ko.  Tynecastle won the Scottish Cup last season and league positions suggest there will be little between the teams.

The Seniors beat Preston Athletic 4 – 1 in the league, the Juniors beat Dalkeith 1 – 0 also in the league to go 4th while the Amateurs beat East Calder 1 – 0 in the Miller Cup. 

The Seniors starting line up saw Donal Henretty, Omar Kader, Jorge Vinelli and Robbie Manson drop to the bench and in came Sean McAuley, Keith Mcleod, Ross Archibald and Stewart Fowlie.

We didn’t play well in the opening 15 minutes and it wasnt really a surprise when Preston took the lead.  Kevin Haynes knocking home from close range after we failed to clear a corner.

We slowly started to exert some pressure and Gavin Malin equalised on the half hour mark after a good cut back from Keith Mcleod, his 16th goal of the season.   The second came ten minutes later, Dean Hoskins’ cross was rifled home by Ross Archibald.

We played controlled football in the second half and two quick goals around the hour mark sealed the win.  Firstly Ross scored with a cross cum shot after being put through by Gavin then Dean Hoskins scored from the edge of the box with his rarely used right foot.  Ross’s double just edging him the man of the match.

Ross - snappy brace

With Whitehill in cup action they now have twelve league games left to our two and us 25 points ahead, the game out at Whitehill seems destined to settle the season.      

Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell, Fowlie, Gerrard, Sivewright, Archibald, King (Manson 75), McAuley, Malin (Kader 68), McLeod, Hoskins (Vinelli 72) Subs not used: Smith, Henretty

Att 123

The Juniors had to fight all the way to earn the points at Dalkeith.  Our winning goal came from a Kenny Young drive from the edge of the box after a great run by Gary Bannon.  Two clean sheets in successive weeks making a big difference with David Paterek picking up the plaudits for a good afternoon between the sticks.  Although we are up to 4th Tranent look as thought they are well clear, we are  17 points behind them albeit with 5 games in hand.   The Juniors league table can be found at http://www.ultrasoft.hostinguk.com/ersjfa/default.asp.

Kenny - 9th of the season

Team: Paterek, Cruickshank, McKibben, Steele, Scott, Moffat, K Young (Roberts), Reid (Baxter), Perry (Robertson), Antoni, Bannon Subs not used: Gillon, Sutherland, Hair, Cartwright

The Amateurs goal scorer was Chris McIntyre as we struggled to beat East Calder.  Another missed penalty but coach Dave Bryce taking the flak after allowing Ronnie Napier to take it after his misses last week.  The game played in a good spirit after the disappointment of the abandoned game.  Injuries taking their toll on our squad with Brian Hutton having to make a substitute appearance in his 54th year.