Students pay the penalty as Spartans go nap

Posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2015

Doubles from Aaron Murrell & David Greenhill plus a first in Spartans colours from Paul Thomson gave Spartans their biggest win of the season so far against Edinburgh University.

It was an early finish to Dan Ward’s first game against his old club after the defender failed to recover from a knock in a 6th minute challenge.

New signing Conner Duthie forced Mark Tait into one of many fine saves from the University keeper, the Student stopper getting down low to keep the loan recruit at bay.

Duthie was at the thick of the action in the 31st minute and his net-bound shot was blocked by the arm of the diving Paul Sutherland, leaving Referee Crawford Allan with no option than to point to the spot.  Aaron Murrell stepped up and left Mark Tait flat-footed on his line to give Spartans the lead.

Blair Carswell had to be on his toes to deal with a David Maskery free-kick from outside the box as the Students looked for a quick reply.

With just four minutes left on the clock til the break, Duthie’s shot was blocked and Paul Thomson picked up the rebound before thundering the ball home after the Student’s defence failed to clear their lines from a corner.

HT: Spartans 2-0 Edinburgh University

A change at half time saw Referee Crawford Allan move from his previous dark top to a day-glo number, perhaps to differentiate from the bottle green University jerseys for the benefit of the colour blind amongst the crowd (and your scribe!)

Shortly before the hour mark, Aaron Murrell slotted home his 2nd penalty of the afternoon home after Michael Herd was upended in the box. Tait was once again left stationery on his line as the youngster nonchalantly side-footed his spot-kick into the net.

As the game looked to be petering out with Spartans en route to three valuable points, a long ball over the top of the University defence saw David Greenhill out-muscle his marker before lobbing his header over the advancing Tait to make it 4-0.

Then, with the game deep into injury time, Keith Murray almost marked his comeback with a goal only to see Tait save with the spilt ball falling to the grateful Greenhill who rounded off a good day at the office for Dougie Samuel’s men who move up to 3rd place.

FT: Spartans 5-0 Edinburgh University

DDavid Greenhill said  “To be fair, it looks like a comfortable victory however I thought it was perhaps the worst we’ve played this season so far and it shows we still a lot to improve on.  That said, we still have a few players out but today gave us a much needed win and three points.

“We’re getting there.  It’s a tighter league this year and everyone’s improved. Everyone is there for the taking I guess and it’s a case of getting a run together and making sure you win at home ”

Malt & Hops Man of the Match: Paul Thomson