Our King Cup game this Saturday will ko at 2pm, Duns were unable to play at 3pm.

When clubs have floodlights our preference for will always be a 3pm ko, it is the recognised ko time for Senior football in Scotland and has been shown in recent weeks crowds will be significantly higher.

The EoS 19s comfortably beat CSS 6 – 0 today in a league game with goals from Jordan Finnie 2, Greg Atkinson, Jordan Glennie, Calum Donnelly and Chris Keppie. The Sunday Amateurs Scottish Cup game was postponed.

Mike says -

“Just as we feared, the Lord Mayor and his entourage who’d taken in our outstanding display against Whitehill a week ago were nowhere to be seen yesterday. Even then playing for an hour against the team at the bottom of the league with the advantage of a 2 goal lead and an extra man you’d have thought we’d have conjured up something better than a 1-1 draw but that’s what we got. We told the players before the game that whatever happened we’d settle for the 3 points so I can’t come on here and be over critical.   

Selkirk battled for their lives and will be proud of their display. We had the vast majority of the ball, passed it around well in midfield (most of the time) but it all broke down with our final pass and decision making round the opposition’s box.

Sam and I said we’d bring Donal Henretty, Kevin Sivewright, Jack Beesley and Jordan Finnie in against Duns next Saturday and so we will. Whoever drops out  will be comforted by the knowledge it’s because of the position those taking their place play in that they’re on the bench. Sam and I will be comforted by the knowledge that after yesterday’s displays none of those left out can argue they deserved a place against the East of Scotland newcomers after yesterday’s performances.”

Mike

The early ko saw the crowd well down on last Saturday as we started with an unchanged XI. The Seniors made a bright start against Selkirk when Omar Kader headed home Dean Hoskins corner. The second came ten minutes later when Omar collected a Robbie Manson cross and tucked the ball home. Omar came under attack from some aggressive challenges, firstly a yellow for a flying tackle against him and then the Selkirk no 2 saw red for a lunge. Selkirk managed to pull one midway through the half when Burdett scored a header. Only five minutes later and Danny O’Donnell drove home a 25 yard drive when a Deano corner was half cleared. Keith McLeod then missed a glaring opportunity before ‘keeper Dodds kept the score at 3 with a great block from Keith.
The second half was a tame affair. Keith again and then John Grant came close but we played at a much lower pace with the points in the bag. Stirling Uni scored a last minute winner to keep the pressure on us at the top of the table in the later kick offs. John Grant won the Malt and Hops man of the match for an assured performance in centre midfield.
Team: Flockhart, O’Donnell, Hoskins, Fusco, McKinnon, Grant, Kader (Beesley 72), Anderson (Henretty 72), McLeod (Finnie 72), Malin, Manson Subs not used: Veitch, Sivewright
The Juniors lost 4 – 1 to Falkirk. We lost an early goal but Chris Rooney pulled one back with a header from a Ross Elliott cross. Falkirk then converted a soft penalty and Connor Armstrong knocked into his own net to give the visitors a 3 – 1 half time lead. Paul Roberts should have pulled be back early in the second period but blasted over. Falkirk then scored a fourth with half an hour to go to secure a win. Team: Jackson, Sclater, (Stewart 65), Boyes, Armstrong (Trialist 79), Thompson, Elliott, Milligan, Rooney, Hunter, Wringe (Trialist 65), Roberts Subs not used Perry, Atai
The Amateurs scored late to beat Bo’ness 4 – 3 with goals from Dave Campbell, Liam Grandison, Nick Reid and Andy Hornell.
Tomorrow the EoS 19s take on CSS at Muirhouse in the league with a 2pm ok. The Sunday Amateurs travel to Larkhall in the last 32 of the Scottish Amateur Cup.

We started a new home match feature last Saturday – the guest of honour. Stewart Fowlie came along last week and Liam did an excellent piece in the programme. Tomorrow we go back a couple of decades and Kenny Ettles is our guest. You can read Kenny’s thoughts on how his XI would fare against today’s XI in the match day programme.

After a very good result at Tranent last week Kenny, Andy and I have been trying to ensure that the players stayed focused as we have a very tough game against Falkirk JFC tomorrow at the Academy. The game kicks off at 3.00 o’clock as the Seniors are playing Selkirk at 1.00 o’clock so there is plenty of action at Ainslie Park tomorrow for the Spartans faithful, many thanks to both Selkirk and Falkirk JFC in accommodating the switch in the Kick Off times.

As Mike eluded to in his pre match piece no two games are the same and you are always vulnerable going into the next game on the back of a good result, it now falls upon Kenny, Andy and I to ensure that we are well prepared for the visit of Falkirk JFC.

The players have trained well this week and we are all looking forward to tomorrow, on the squad front we are still without Kiddo & Zavs, Paulo picked up an ankle injury at training on Tuesday, Sean & Connor are nursing slight niggles but should be okay, Matty is unavailable due to work commitments and Davy Stewart comes back into the squad along with Kyle McCartney.

Kenny, Andy and I should have a strong squad to select from depending on the extent of the injuries and we have already emphasised to the players what we are looking for during training this week.

The players need to show the same team spirit and endeavour as they did last week at Tranent with our more experienced players leading by example, they have now set the standard for the rest of the season let’s see how we perform tomorrow.

Alex

Mike says -

“Will it be “After the Lord Mayor’s Show” or will the players get our excellent win over Whitehill out of their heads and concentrate on the very difficult job of beating a Selkirk team fighting for their Premier League lives? That sums tomorrow up in a nutshell. No two performances are the same and just as a golfer struggles to follow a record low round with another well below par, normally a football team follows a sublime performance with a below par showing. 

Last week’s superb victory over our title rivals is up there with our 5-1 victory at Raydale last August but after our win against Gretna we struggled for a couple of games. Hopefully the realisation that Selkirk are trying to stay in the league will concentrate our minds and we’ll grind out the result we need to keep us clear at the top of the pile. As Sam said trying to temper the elation after last week’s win – “it’s only 3 points”. Tomorrow Sam and I have to get through to the players that the same rules apply against Selkirk. The 3 points up for grab against the boys from Yarrow Park are the same as we battled so hard for last Saturday. We all know from recent history that if Selkirk are still in the game against us with half an hour to go they can make things very difficult. All Border teams are competitive and we expect another hard examination of our abilities at the Academy starting at 1.00 tomorrow.

Normally after a good win Sam and I would change it around a little to freshen things up. If all the boys are fit and healthy when they turn up tomorrow however we’ll break with our convention and stick with the same starting 11 who played so well against Whitehill. Kevin Sivewright is back and will take his place on the bench along with Jordan, Jack, Donal and either Dr Seeley or young Iain McTurk.

Respect, commitment, focus, tempo and ball retention will feature in my team talk tomorrow. Will the players be listening? Come down and see.”

Mike