Lowland League: Allan key to unlocking Spartans success against Shire

Posted on Friday, August 20th, 2021

Spartans head into Saturday’s Lowland League clash with East Stirlingshire on the back of an incredible comeback win over Bo’ness United on Wednesday night.

It was a result that put Dougie Samuel’s side into third place in the table and sees them with six wins out of seven games played in a busy opening few weeks of the campaign.

The visitors have had an indifferent start, although their 8th placing so early in the season means nothing and after two draws and a narrow defeat to new table toppers Bonnyrigg in midweek, Shire will undoubtedly head East keen to get their promotion bid back on track.

Comebacks are of course something both teams meeting at Ainslie Park are familiar with.  The previous two clashes between the sides have witnessed sensational Spartans recoveries – a Jake Davidson solo spectacular and an Archie Meekison hat-trick memorable highlights – however the Gaffer and the Spartan Army faithful will be keen for a more traditional route to three points this time round.

One of the main architects behind Wednesday’s late show was Malt & Hops Man of the Match Michael Allan.  The Academy Graduate reflected on the win, “I think we started the first half against Bo’ness rather sloppily, but quickly got ourselves back in the game and we had about half a dozen chances, but just couldn’t put them away.  We came out in the second half, frustratingly conceded again early, but plugged away and eventually took our chances in the final third and came out on top.

“If we can keep it tight at the back and the boys up top continue to do the job they are doing, we’re going to come away from games with points.  Wednesday was the first time we’d found ourselves in that position since the opening game of the season against Rangers where we’ve been two goals down but it shows that we are capable of digging deep and turning a game around and getting the win.

“We’re doing well at the moment, getting wins where maybe last season we wouldn’t have done so. The boys are simply taking each game as it comes and our immediate focus now is East Stirling on Saturday.   We know how difficult they can be as opponents and we’ll need to compete from the first whistle to keep them at bay.”

Kick-off at Ainslie Park is 3pm.  Advance tickets are via the Fanbase App however we do accept payment at the gate.  Admission is £8 Adults, £5 Concessions, Under 16s Free.

The match is being sponsored by J-Teq EMS Solutions.