Spartans Defeated in City Cup Final

Posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

It was a glorious day as Spartans crossed the border to play Berwick Rangers in their home stadium. Spartans had a setback before the first whistle when it emerged that Dave Etale wouldn’t be able to play, despite being named on the bench, because of knee problems that have been bothering him for some weeks. On top of this, prolific goalscorer Keith McLeod was suspended, Omar Kader was unavailable and Alex King was injured.

Berwick won the toss and decided to shoot up the hill in the first half. Spartans started well and had most of the possession with Jack Beesley and Robbie Manson having chances to put Spartans in front. Then some good play on the left hand side by Beesley and a good cross gave Ross Archibald a chance to put us in front. He finished well and Spartans were in the driving seat where they continued to press Berwick however they failed to score again giving them a 1-0 lead at the break.

At half time, Berwick Rangers made three substitutions to make the team pretty much their strongest 11. The Division 3 side began to dominate and made use of the slope while the Spartans players appeared to struggle. Damon Gray levelled the scoring before a superb free kick from Paul Currie put Rangers in front with 10 mins to go. Spartans brought on fresh legs in the form of Chris Smith, Jordan Finnie and Andrew Sinclar however they couldn’t beat an in-form Mark Peat, the ex-Aberdeen player was in the Arbroath team that was knocked out of the Scottish Cup a few years ago by Spartans. 

Congratulations to Berwick Rangers and also Danny O’Donnell who captained the side on his 250th appearance!

Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell, Hoskins (Smith), Townsley, Sivewright, Fowlie (Finnie), Malin, Manson, Archibald, Henretty (Sinclair), Beesley.