Spartans Juniors and Senior teams both progressed to the final tomorrow with penalty shoot out victories over their Junior Superleague opposition.
The Junior side faced Musselburgh in the first game of the day. Spartans were let off the hook early on when a Dawid Paterek throw out hit a Musselburgh striker and bounced into the net, however the referee chalked the goal off – much to the relief of the Polish keeper. It wasn’t long though until the visitors took the lead with a well worked team goal. Less than 2 minutes later and Musselburgh made it two nil with Paterek unable to prevent the ball crossing the line. Spartans changed formation and forced their way back into the game. New summer signing Clark Campbell pulled one back with a well placed shot before fellow newbie Ross McKenzie’s lobbed shot beat the Musselburgh keeper. Spartans completed an impressive comeback just seconds before the half time whistle when Gary Bannon fired home following some good link up play from Mark Cowan and Kenny Young.
The second half was much tighter with neither side creating many chances. Musselburgh did however score an equaliser with just 5 minutes left. The game finished 3-3 and went to penalties. Musselburgh missed two and Dawid Paterk saved two as the Junior side slotted home 4 out of their 5 penalties to progress to the final.
Team: Paterek, Cruickshank (Trialist), McKibben, Steele, Bannon (Trialist), Campbell, Shanks (Moffat), Antoni, Cowan (Smith), Young (Boyes), McKenzie unused subs: Reid, Robertson,
The Senior team were up next against Superleague side Newtongrange Star. Nitten started former Spartan Adam Perry, his first start since his summer move. The game was even throughout and both team struggled to create many chances. Nitten scored first when Stewart Fowlie was judged to have pushed Gareth Hutchison just inside the box. Steven Thomson set up to convert the penalty and give the visitors the lead. Just a few minutes later and Gavin Malin was tripped in the box which give the Senior side a chance to level things up. Malin dusted himself down, placed the ball on the penalty spot and fired high into the net to equalise. As the game went on it looked more and more likely it would take further penalties to separate the sides and when the match finished 1-1 it meant for the second year running, and becoming a bit of a Ronnie Swan tournament tradition, both first day games would be decided by penalties.
The Senior side stepped up first, missing their first penalty but scoring the rest. Nitten scored their first but back to back saves from Flockhart and an over the bar attempt meant the seniors won 3-1 to set up the all Spartan affair tomorrow afternoon.
Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell (Kader), Hoskins, Townsley, Fowlie, McAuley, King, Manson, Etale (Vinelli), Malin (Henretty), Beesley (Smith) unused subs: McGarrie, Sivewright
Tomorrow’s games will now be:
3rd/4th playoff – Newtongrange Star v Musselburgh (1pm)
Final – Spartans Seniors v Spartans Juniors (3.30pm)
