Mike says -

“Yesterday turned out much as I expected it to. We knew the Uni were missing one or two players but we also knew that Sammy would use that to motivate his team and galvanise their spirit. They have a great defensive record this season and their re-jigged back four which included veteran Neil Irvine nullified our attack for most of the afternoon. As our frustration grew the Uni scored a great goal (from their point of view) and all the pressure was on us. I said on Friday that ourselves, Edinburgh Uni and Stirling will definitely be in the mix with possibly one or two others come the end of the season and on seeing them for the first time yesterday I’m more convinced than ever that they are where they are in the league on merit.

For our part we’ve come from behind on a number of occasions this season and at half-time out team talk was mainly about “keeping the faith”. Although we don’t perform at the top level week in week out there is a belief and a resilience in this group of players and it showed in the later stages at Peffermill. Anyone playing us know that we’ll go to the end and as both teams tired I felt it was Spartans that looked the stronger. Having the option of bringing on Omar Kader, Alex King and the ever improving Chris Smith swung the game our way and once Keith McLeod drew us level I thought there was only going to be one winner. Having said that, when the Uni had a couple of corners in the dying embers of the 90 minutes I was more than a little anxious.

Games don’t come much harder than yesterday but we’re going to have to build ourselves up all over again for Stirling on Wednesday. It’ll be our third meeting with the students in 12 games which makes little sense when there are still three or four Premier League sides we have to meet for the first time.   Anyway, with our small squad we go into that game with two players unavailable and Danny O’Donnell and David Etale doubtful through injury. If Neil Irvine can be called into service in his mid forties maybe I can……. naw, forget that, we can always call on a couple of our Under 19′s.”

Mike

Mike says -

“First of all I’m glad we were in the draw. We all felt a bit out of it last Saturday and I know that getting a bye for winning the league is a reward but we’d rather have been in there playing in the First Round with the rest of the EOS sides. As a non league side you don’t get many Scottish Cup games each year and as I say we were feeling we had missed something on reading the reports on Monday.

Keith away – well it had to be away and with over a dozen Highland League sides in the hat there was a very good chance we’d be travelling north. It’s a game both teams will think they have a chance of winning and we’ll approach it like any other Scottish Cup game. I’ll go up and watch them, we’ll more than likely travel north on the Friday and whatever the outcome we will endeavour to enjoy the day. As I tell the players it’s the one competition we enter each season we can’t realistically win so there is no pressure on us whatsoever. The pressure comes from trying to retain or win domestic honours.

The 23rd October can’t come quickly enough.”

Mike

Mike says -

“I’ve seen Heriot-Watt twice this season so when we heard they were playing Forfar on Tuesday Sam skipped training to take in most of the game at Riccarton. My co-manager was impressed. The students played very well against SFL opposition and only lost to the odd goal in three near the end. I saw the Watt win at Muirhouse earlier in the season and I also took in their home defeat to Tynecastle where an early sending off helped shape the result against them. Student teams are never easy to play against and now that the University year has started Michael will have his full intake of players to choose from. We are looking forward to difficult 90 minutes.

For our part it looks like our spate of injuries is finally clearing up. Ross Archibald managed part of the Stirling game last week and both Alex King and Jack Beesley though lacking match fitness are back to full training and will be stripped tomorrow. The biggest plus for us is Chris Townsley who looked to have put himself out for some time after an awkward fall last Saturday. He didn’t do much on Tuesday but completed last nights training and should there be no reaction he’ll retain his position at the centre of our defence.

Our only absentee tomorrow is David Etale who is down south kicking a football for the Army.  With Edinburgh Uni on Scottish Cup duty there is a chance we could move to the top of the league table albeit temporarily perhaps. That is our aim.”

Mike