The Juniors will not be promoted from the East Region South League this year after Broxburn beat Dalkeith 1 – 0 yesterday to win the league.  If we beat Broxburn away on Wednesday on our final fixture we will finish second.

The EoS select game against the England C game yesterday saw a 1 – 0 win for England, the goal coming with fifteen minutes left.  The Select defended for the first half and then pushed on early in the second, the closest we came to scoring when Gavin Malin and then Dean Hoskins both had shots blocked when they looked goalbound.  The crowd was just under 300 and the English contingent – players, committee and fans had a great day…a special mention to the crew from Barnet who would be welcome back to the cafe/bar any time.

At the player of the year dinner last night the prizes went to:

Seniors:

- Player’s player: Kevin Sivewright

- Coaches player: Dan Gerrard

- Fan “Spartans of the Year”: Dan Gerrard

Dan - with the trophies

Juniors

- Coaches player: Kenny Young

- Player’s player: Joe Steele

Saturday Amateurs

- Coaches player: David Cran

Sunday Amateurs

- Coaches player: Sean Smith

- Player’s player: Jamie Murray

EoS 19s

- Coaches player: Andrew Sinclair

It’s an International weekend for the Womens game, today Scotland play N Ireland at Dumbarton and we have Di Barry, Hayley Lauder and Pauline Hammil in the squad.  On Saturday morning the national Under 19s squad left for Macedonia where they play as one of eight in the European Championship with games against England, Holland and Germany starting tomorrow.  We have Sarah Ewens, Chloe Fitzpatrick and Stacey Mclean in the squad led by coaches Shelley Kerr and Dougie Samuel.  It has been a fantastic feat to qualify andd we have a very tough group.

Finally three cup finals this week for our Saturday Under 19s…they play Musselburgh Windsor at Dalkeith on Tuesday (ko 7pm), and Leith Athletic on Thursday and Saturday both at the Academy.  The ko’s are 7pm and 2pm respectively.  The team are stepping up en masse to the EoS 19s next season and have done well this season finishing second in the league behind a strong Leith side in their final season at 19s.

Finally congratulations to our third team at 14s who won their third cup on Friday with a 3 – 0 win over Newcraighall at Saughton…a great feat and the team have been promoted, and they will face a tougher schedule next season.

We are delighted to host the EoS select game tomorrow, the ko is 3pm.

There will be six Spartans players in the squad, Kevin Sivewright, Gavin Malin, Alex King, Omar Kader, Dean Hoskins and Sean McAuley.  Robbie Manson was selected but has had to pull out.

The England squad is selected from the English conference and are all full time and they head off to Ireland after the game for a game in the European championship.  The two Oxford players played at Wembley last week in front of 45,000 fans, of which 32,000 were supporting Oxford!  I’m sure they will enjoy Ainslie park in comparison.  It will be great to have a big Spartans crowd behind the team and in particular the Spartans players.  After playing in the Uni League for Heriot Watt and also for Scottish Uni’s this season as well as for us Gavin will have had some season!

Great wins for both the Seniors and Juniors although the 14s lose out in their cup final.

The Seniors 2 – 1 win was an exciting game for the neutral.  We opened the scoring after 10 minutes when Danny O’Donnel cracked home a drive from the edge of the box following an Omar kader corner.  Danny was playing superbly causing havoc down their right flank before he pulled up lame with a hamstring pull on the half hour mark.  Robbie Manson came on at right back and although we had the bulk of possession there was only one real chance in the remainder of the half when Ross Archibald’s header came off the crossbar.

The second came with a great drive from Alex King from 23 yards after a lay back from Keith Mcleod. 

Lothian did begin to put us under pressure although we looked more likely to score again as Omar and Keith Mcleod both missed chances.  Lothian did pull one back with 15 to go and McIntosh missed a a chance a minute later to equalise.  There were a couple of half chances at either end but the four minutes of injury time passed with us keeping the ball well.  Sean McAuley controlled much of the game from the centre of midfield to win the Spartans man of the match.  Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell (Manson 29), Fowlie (Hoskins 73), Archibald, Gerrard, Sivewright, King, McAuley, Kader (Malin 80), Henretty, McLeod Subs not used: Etale, Vinelli

The Juniors had a great 1 – 0 win over Sauchie to keep them in the hunt for the title.  If Broxburn don’t win against Dalkeith on Saturday and lose to us on Wednesday we will go up.  Struan Preston and Michael Moffat had pick up injuries and both had to be left out, in came Jacob Crolla and Garry Bannon.  Nick Reid scored the all important first half goal when he flicked the ball over the ‘keeper from close range.  The City Park surface didn’t make for good football but a second half rearguard action with Joe Steele, Sam Scott and Ollie Antoni outstanding kept a clean sheet.  We have played 8 games in the last 19 days and won seven, the only defeat being to Super league Musselburgh.  A fantastic record. 

Team: Paterek, Cruickshank, Steele, McKibben, K Young, Reid (Boyes), Antoni, Scott, Bannon, Perry (Roberts), Crolla Subs not used: Robertson, G Young, Cartwright 

Our 14s unfortunately lost 4 – 1 to Edina Hibs in the cup final at the Academy.

A number of fans have expressed a need for a map of how to get to St Mark’s Park for tonight’s game. The best way is to use the public footpath on Broughton Road, opposite McDonald Road. Alternatively, you can access St Mark’s Park from the Water of Leith walkway/cycle route. Join the cycle path at Tesco Canonmills and continue in the direction of Leith. You’ll see St Mark’s Park on your right as you continue down the path.

By car, head along Ferry Road and turn up Warriston Road. Drive right to the end of Warriston Road.

View Larger Map

In response to some witty banter on the Pie and Bovril forum we are delighted to show the crunching tackle from the Stirling Uni defender on David which saw us being awarded the spot kick early in Sunday’s cup final.

definite penalty