Edinburgh City 3 Spartans 3 (Match Report)

Posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Spartans started their belated league campaign with a single point from a game where they should have left with all three.

New signings Robbie Manson, Chris Flockhart and Nicky Walker all started their competitive debuts in an attacking 4-5-1 formation. Spartans quickly took hold of the game. With only 3 minutes gone some great distribution play from the lightening paced Walker created space for Kader on the right. His ball into the box was cleared only as far as King, whose shot from 18 yards rattled the bar.

Just 3 minutes later and Walker this time missed a good opportunity to put the away side in front, putting the ball over from just a few yards out.

Henretty then missed a glorious chance in the 14th minute. With an open goal his soft shot was cleared off the line by the City defence.

It took until the 25th minute for City to have any threat at goal. A weak shot easily collected at his front post by Chris Flockhart.

Spartans were controlling the game, however had so far been unable to convert their chances to goals. However the City Park side took the lead in the 35 min. A beautifully flighted pass into the box fell at the feet of Kader, who coolly slotted the ball home from 12 yards.

The stubborn Spartan defence was restricting City to half chances and the home teams best chance came from a speculative effort from Robbie Ross in the 37th minute. The ball flying high over the bar.

1-0   at half time

Into the second half and Spartans flew out the traps. Within 5 minutes of the restart Spartans doubled their lead. Kadar chasing down the City left back, won the ball and cross to the back post where Henretty smashed the ball into the net to make it 2-0

Two minutes later King had the ball in the net for Spartans again, however the linesman flagged for off-side.

It didn’t take long until Spartans did further extend their lead. Some great work from Walker saw him win the ball just outside the city box. He dribbled into the area and placed his shot into the far corner of the net. 3-0 and Spartans look like they had 3 safe points.

Young replaced Henretty on 59 minutes and Mallon replaced King on 61 minutes. Spartans seem to lose their shape and City started to control more of the game.

City scored in the 76th minute after a considerable amount of pressure on the Spartan’s defence.

Noon replaced Walker as Spartans tried to turn the game back in their favour, however When City scored again in the 84th minute it ensure there would be a tense last few minutes in the game.

In the 87th minute City were reduce to 10 men after a second booking for their number 14 saw him take an early bath. Rather than work against them, this seemed to have a positive effect on the home side that after losing their central defender went on an attack down the right. The ball was crossed in for City to score the equalizer and tie the game at 3-3.

Spartans then pushed for a late winner but got very little return from the now tight City defence and the game ended with the points being shared.

Spartans showed the fairly strong crowd of 130 at Meadowbank exactly why they are strong candidates for the title this season and as they get more games under their belt they will grow stronger.

MOTM: Omer Kader. – An excellent, hard working performance which included an assist and a very well taken goal.