Ronnie Swan Tournament: Motion & Matty pave way for Pars Final

Posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2014

Spartans will play Dunfermline Athletic in Sunday’s Final of the Tennent’s sponsored Ronnie Swan Challenge Tournament.

Events got underway at Ainslie Park with Dunfermline taking on Livingston in front of a sizeable crowd at the Academy.

Dunfermline grabbed a 16^th minute lead that they never surrendered, after an infringement gave Ross Forbes the opportunity to push the ball over the wall and see his shot nestle in the back of the Livingston net.

The Pars effectively fielded two teams over the 90 minutes with all bar goalkeeper Scully remaining in the changing room at half-time.

Livingston’s Michael McKenna was a whisker away from equalising with minutes left on the clock as his cross / shot skimmed off the crossbar and away to safety.

Dunfermline breathed a sigh of relief and with that, they advanced to the Final where they’d take on the winners of the Spartans v Falkirk tie.  You can read the Dunfermline website’s report here.

Falkirk lived up to their reputation of being nicknamed the Bairns by fielding a youthful looking side against Dougie Samuel’s team that included Kevin Swain pulling on the Spartans gloves for the first time.

The opening half hour was played at a less frantic pace than the opening game with a midfield war of attrition playing out.

That was until Kevin Motion broke the deadlock with an attempt that seemed to somehow sneak in at Bowman’s near post, forcing a somewhat delayed response amongst the home crowd.

Cameron Blues equalised in the 56^th minute with a delightfully struck goal from 18 yards out, giving Swain little chance.

A 35 yard drive from Stevenson forced Bowman into looking sharp as he dived at full length to push the ball round his post to keep the scores level.

Spartans edged their noses back in front in the 63^rd minute after Motion unleashed a phenomenal drive from 25 yards out that drew warm applause from around the Ainslie Park ground.

A triple substitution for Spartans saw Motion, Muhsin and Herd replaced by Hunter, Cunningham and McWhirter.

It didn’t take long for Matty Cunningham to make an impact. His bullet header in the 76^th minute put further light between the sides in what were fairly humid conditions in North Edinburgh.

Errol Douglas was introduced and he came on for Jack Beesley with 12 minutes to play.

With the Referee already taking a look at his watch to bring proceedings to an end, Cunningham served up his second of the afternoon – a delightfully struck goal with the outside of the foot – and with that, paved Spartans way into Sunday’s Final.

The line-up for Finals Day of the Tennent’s Ronnie Swan Challenge Tournament:

1pm: Livingston v Falkirk

3pm: Spartans v Dunfermline