Spartans Seniors are through to the semi final of the League Cup following a convicing 4-1 victory away to Preston. Omar Kader was a hat trick hero and Keith McLeod added another to put Spartans through. Omar scored first before Preston pulled level. Cloudie scored before the break to give us a narrow 1 goal lead at half time. Two 2nd half goals from Omar put us well in front and we will now face Edinburgh Uni in the semi finals on May 4th at the Academy.

A crowd of over 115 was at Ainslie Park to see the Junior side lose 2-1 to league leaders Tranent, despite dominating the game through-out. Tranent looked to play long ball tactics all afternoon and took the lead when a goalkick was poked beyond Dawid Paterk in the Spartans goal. Phil McKibben pulled Spartans level with a strong head from a corner however Tranent scored following a freekick with just minutes left on the clock. The result means that Spartans would need Tranent to lose 2 of their remaining 4 games and we would have to win all 8 of ours.

Finally, the Saturday Amateurs lost 5-3 away to Heriot Vale in the leagues. Goals came from Wells, Ben Gharbia and Brown.

The Seniors game against Preston kicks off at 2.30pm.  Kevin Sivewright returns to the squad but Ross Archibald is missing.  David Etale is making a fantastic recovery but is still a week away from making the bench

The Juniors play table topping Tranent at the Academy with a 2.30pm ko.  We still have a chance of promotion after a great run and Trenent went down to Broxburn last week.  We sit fourth and David Cowan has a full squad to choose from with no injuries reported. The game should attract our biggest home gate of the season, admission is £4/£2 and season tickets are valid.
The top of the table reads as follows with us having to play all the top 3 teams:
Tranent Juniors 21 45
Broxburn Athletic 19 39
Sauchie Juniors 18 32
Spartans Juniors 17 31

The Amateurs play Heriot Vale away in a league game.

With a convincing 4 – 0 win over Inverness last night our Womens team reached the League Cup Final.  The scorers were Claire Crosbie, Pauline Hammil, Sarah Ewings and Hayley Lauder.  The final against Celtic is to be played at the Academy – it is scheduled for Thursday 13th May…yip, the same night as the Seniors Regional Cup Final against Gretna at Tynecastle.  The Womens Final has just been moved to accommodate Scotland’s qualification for the Euro 19s, there may be some flexibility on date.

In other games this week the EoS 19s lost 4 – 2 to Edinburgh City in the league.  The Amateurs lost 3 – 1 to higher league Seaforth Highlanders on Monday in the Challenge Cup quarter final, Steve Johnson scoring.  On Wednesday the Amateurs beat Bridgend 3 – 0 in the first round of the Cairns Cup with Wells, Napier and Ouvry getting the goals.

Mike says -

“Tomorrow Spartans head to Preston for our third League Cup Saturday in a row. Unfortunately it’s my first but I won’t bore you with that story for the moment.

We played Preston twice at the Pennypitt early in the season with both games very close indeed and we expect more of the same tomorrow.  After the performances Preston put in on those occasions I’m surprised they weren’t pushing at the top of the league this season but maybe it just proves how the standards have improved in our league (in both divisions I should say) where any team can win against any other team on any given day.  We travel down to Preston knowing that only our best will do.

I arrived back in Scotland late yesterday afternoon and headed down to the Academy to congratulate each player individually on winning the league. After training I congratulated them collectively on a wonderful achievement given they had lost two league games early in the season. Some players go through their whole career without ever winning a league medal and our players have to realise how lucky they are to be part of a group who have pulled it off again this season.

I then asked them if they thought winning the league and the league only would make it a successful season for us. They didn’t need to answer as we all know we are still in three cup competitions and such are the standards this group of players set themselves not going on and picking up some more silverware would leave the season ending on a flat note.

That quest starts tomorrow against Preston in what is sure to be a close game.”

Mike

Mike says -

“Sitting in an internet cafe in Santa Ponsa seeing photos of Stewart being presented and the first team squad posing with the Premier League trophy brings a smile to my face. Do I feel that I or Mike for that matter, missed out on anything by not being there yesterday the answer is – you must be joking. We were there for all the games that mattered and I´m/we´re delighted the trophy is staying where it should be.

The biggest plus from yesterday´s win against Ormiston was yet another shut-out for Chris and his defence. Sam and I thought that despite a successful season last time round, we conceded too many goals and I´m sure we´ve improved in that area this time round. When I get home I´ve publish stats on our goals for and against over the last couple of seasons.

The other big thing to come out of yesetedays game was 3 goals for Wee Eck. The wee man hasn’t had his troubles to seek over the last few weeks but he is such a big player for us and I was delighted he bagged a hat-trick. If as I´ve heard it was his 100´th game he should have led the boys out and if me being so far away has done anything to let the boys down it was not being there to make sure that Alex got that honour.

I should be back on Thursday but if the volcanic ash problem continues I´ll consider hiring a car and driving home. I don´t think I can handle missing another game.”

Mike

The Woemsn team went down 4 – 2 to Glasgow City at the Academy this afternoon.  We took the lead after 15 minutes when Pauline Hammel knocked home a Di Barry cross.  City however equalised on the half hour mark with a penalty when Shelley Faughnan was adjusted to have pushed over  a City striker, it did look outside the box.  City then dominated and just when it looked as though we would get to the break even two quick goals in the 43rd and 45th minutes gave them a half time lead.  The second half was balanced with few chances.  With 15 to go Shelley was red carded for her second booking, City scored a 4th before Hayley Lauder pulled one back.   A disappointing score and now we head to Perth on Thursday for another massive tie, this time against Inverness in the semi final of the League Cup.

Our EoS 19s lost 1 – 0 to Tynecastle in the 1st leg of the Challenge Cup with the 2nd leg next week.  We played well having had Gavin Cattanach sent off early in the second half.

The Sunday Amateurs showed great spirit coming from 4 – 1 down at half time to grab a point against Salters.  Two braces from Alieu Faye and Stephen Hamilton.

The Saturday Amateurs have a Challenge Cup quarter final tomorrow, against Premier League Seaforth Highlanders at Campbell Park, ko 6.15.

The EoS 19s have a league game against Edinburgh City on Wednesday at City Park with a 6.45ko.