Lowland League | Atkinson completes comeback as Spartans stun Students

Posted on Sunday, January 26th, 2020

A late Blair Atkinson deft flick with the head saw Spartans complete a Lazarus-esque comeback from the dead with a 3-2 win over Stirling University at Ainslie Park.

The sides shared the spoils in a no-score stalemate seven days earlier at Forthbank however there was to be a feast of opportunity for the fans to warm their hands in the stand as both sides created a sea of chances in a game that welcomed Spartans Academy coach Kenny Cameron’s stag party to town.

With Captain Adam Corbett serving the second match of his suspension, Ian McFarland retained the armband and Blair Atkinson swapping spots in the starting XI with Arron Murrell.

It was the visitors to took the lead after an almighty scramble in the home box saw the ball ping around and when the defence failed to clear, it was finally picked up by Craig Brown who found the empty net.

Ben Fry between the Student’s sticks was very much the Spartans nemesis in the previous encounter and the young shot stopper was once again in fine form to deny Gregor Woods following some lovely play in the build up from Jordan Caddow and Blair Atkinson.

HT: Spartans 0-1 Stirling University

Fry was on hand to deny Jack Smith who save his effort well saved and sent behind for a corner.

With the visiting goalie keeping the hosts at bay, an attack involving Smith broke down deep in the University danger zone and a long ball up the park saw Player/Manager Chris Geddes break the offside trap and whilst his shot was well stopped by the advancing Blair Carswell, he reacted to collect the ball and send the rebound home despite the despairing efforts of the backtracking defender on the line.

Playing well, yet two goals down painted a bleak and frustrating feature.  However, a corner kick saw the ball knocked back into the path of Michael Bolochoweckyj who nodded home to narrow the deficit.

A bit of an unorthodox sclaff from Fry saw his kick from hand almost come back on itself and when the ball was collected and spread wide to Jack Smith, the striker sent an unstoppable low drive across the face of the goal into the bottom corner to level proceedings.

Spartans made a double substitution with Cameron Dawson and Dale Baxter coming on to replaced Maxwell and Caddow as Manager Dougie Samuel introduced fresh legs to seek out a winner.

With the game looking to head towards a second draw in as many games, a corner into the box saw Blair Atkinson dart to the front post and leap in front of the defender to flick the ball into the back of the net.  Cue absolute scenes.

FT: Spartans 3-2 Stirling University