Spiders double whammy sends Sammy’s Spartans out of Scottish Cup

Posted on Sunday, October 20th, 2019

Spartans and Little Miss Muffet will unlikely find themselves in the opening sentence of a match report again however both have suffered a similar fate in the face of Spiders, as the Ainslie Park side crashed out of the Scottish Cup against Queen’s Park at the 2nd Round stage.

With last week’s Man of the Match Jordan Caddow cup-tied and Captain Adam Corbett suspended, Manager Dougie Samuel was boosted by Aaron Scott being declared fit following his enforced departure last week.

Spartans started the livelier of the two teams and an early snapshot effort from Jake Davidson whilst under lots of QP pressure and his shot went high over the bar.

Longer bootlaces may have been a bonus for stand-in skipper Ian McFarland as he agonisingly couldn’t connect with the ball as it was whipped across the six yard box.

The page to the chapter that reads “But what if…” was turned in the 8th minute when Ciaran Summers appeared to have handled the ball inside his own penalty area. Much to the bemusement of the hosts and the relief of the visitors, the match officials collectively concluded no penalty was on offer.

Blair Carswell was then called into action and he saved well from Calvin McGrory however there was little the Spartans goalie could do with the Spiders opener in the 32nd minute.

Summers swung in a deep ball from a corner kick and it wasn’t picked up by the posse of players in the area until dangerman Alfredo Agyeman pounced to poke home from 6 yards.

A double whammy hit the hosts just two minutes later. That man Agyeman showed pace to get to the byeline before his cross found it’s way to David Galt who converted, much to the delight of the small band of his side’s fans camped behind the goal.

Spartans came close before they headed to the sheds for the oranges when a corner was mistimed by William Muir, fell to Dean Hoskins just beyond the back post, the big defender’s angle too tight to try for goal and his pass back into the mix was hoofed to safety.

HT: Spartans 0-2 Queen’s Park

Atkinson was replaced by Nicky Reid at the interval and it was his striker partner Aaron Murrell who came close to reducing the deficit when he went on a run only to be crowded out by the defence.

Jake Davidson’s timely intervention at the back ensured Spartans didn’t fall further behind as the visitors looked to close out the game.

As the game started to slip away, Reid, who caused some pain for the opposition with his trickery, threaded the ball back into the path of substitute David Greenhill, but his shot unfortunately landed on top of the net.

FT: Spartans 0-2 Queen’s Park