Samuel seeks sterling effort in Stirling for League Cup showdown

Posted on Friday, January 17th, 2014

Spartans travel to Stirling for their penultimate League Cup qualifying group game, knowing anything other than a win will see the hosts progress to the knock-out stages.

When the sides last met in the same tournament at a wet and windy Ainslie Park in December, the visitors squeezed through with an odd goal in seven win in what was a fantastic advert for the newly formed Lowland League.

For Spartans Manager Dougie Samuel, Saturday’s game is another test for his maturing side and a win would give a different dynamic to the final group clash against Whitehill in the yet to be rearranged tie.

Samuel said, “In the context of the League Cup, tomorrow is a ‘must win’ game. In terms of the bigger picture however, it’s another small step on our journey towards something more meaningful.

“So far this season our ‘Super Saturday’ record has been excellent, an improvement in comparison to last year, with the only blot to date coming pre-Christmas in our 3-4 loss to Stirling.

“Just now our head to head record vs. the University this season is one win apiece.  Come 4.45pm tomorrow we hope we are celebrating a win, improving our head to head record and setting ourselves up for a crack at qualification in our final league cup section game at Rosewell.”

Meanwhile, goal-scoring machine Keith McLeod is hoping to hit the net in his 13^th consecutive game, with his late penalty against Edinburgh City last week keeping him in contention for a new Scottish Football record.

The match is being played at Forthbank, the home of Stirling Albion and it kicks off at 3pm.

Directions to the ground can be found here http://www.spartansfc.com/2014/01/17/getting-to-forthbank/