Valiant Spartans dealt cruel blow at the death at Colts

Posted on Saturday, August 26th, 2017

Spartans were denied at the death in foul conditions at Broadwood after valiantly playing a full hour of the game against Cumbernauld Colts with 10 men.

It was Spartans who came out of the starting blocks with gusto in the rain and within three minutes, Mikey Herd’s cross was narrowly headed wide by David Greenhill.

Just eight minutes had lapsed when the visitors took the lead.  The Malt and Hops Man of the Match Jamie Dishington found Greenhill who atoned for his earlier miss with a sublime strike, finding the top corner from 20 yards with the left foot.

Ian McFarland was up next to test out the Colts keeper however his long range effort was deflected behind for a corner.

The man in the middle will have spent much of his post-match drying out period completing his bookings report, with a host of players finding his jotter on a night where a degree of sympathy may have been offered for the slippy 3G surface as the incessant rain lashed down.

It was one of the cards that saw Spartans reduced to 10 men on the half hour mark when, just moments after being clattered himself, McFarland found himself making the solo walk back to the sheds, earning a red for a challenge undoubtedly born out of frustration.

HT: Cumbernauld Colts 0-1 Spartans

Colour-blindness is prevalent amongst males which may explain the reasons behind Colts keeper coming out for the second half wearing his third jersey of the match to avoid a clash of shirts.

The keeper was then called into action to deny Dishington with his feet.  It was feet of a different kind that upended the same player shortly after however Greenhill couldn’t direct the subsequent free-kick home.

A revolving door policy for replacements was deployed by the home side, with what appeared to be most on a booking being replaced by a colleague from the bench.

When Blair Tolmie noticed Fahey off his line, the big defender launched a speculative free-kick effort from inside his own half, only for the ball to divert away from the target.

Colts looked to have levelled with 20 minutes to go when a goalmouth stramash had shades of 1966 and Russian Linesman as the ball appeared to have crossed the line.  With all eyes on the match officials, the whistle blew – for an infringement on Andrew Stobie l instead, much to the bemusement of the home team.

Then, as the game drifted into the fourth minute of injury time, Colts were awarded a penalty of soft proportions.  A launch into the box saw Adam Corbett and a Cumbernauld player look to outfox each other, only for the Referee to adjudge Corbett to have used enough pressure in his holding off his man to make him go crashing to the ground.  O’Neil stepped up to earn the hosts an unlikely point with the last kick of the game.

FT: Cumbernauld Colts 1-1 Spartans

Spartans: Stobie, Herd, Stevenson, Tolmie, Corbett, Greenhill (Wilson 70), Brown, McFarland, Guthrie (Thomson 56), Bremner, Dishington. Subs: Maxwell, Atkinon, Allum, Archibald, Carswell.

Malt and Hops Man of the Match: Jamie Dishington