Lowland League Preview | Spartans v University of Stirling

Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2020

Spartans gaffer Dougie Samuel will be looking to build on the momentum of back to back victories at the beginning of the 8^th Lowland League season when they welcome Stirling University to Ainslie Park on Saturday.

With two wins in the opening week of the campaign so far, Spartans join four other clubs on maximum points following victories over Gretna and Berwick Rangers, each by single goal margins.

Leading the charge, both times from the bench, has been match winner Cameron Dawson.  The striker popped up at the death on in midweek to head home what proved to the decisive goal. 

The Academy Graduate, scorer of the first ever goal on our new live stream feed, said, “It’s a team effort and I just do the best I can to carve out opportunities and look to score them.  It’s all about winning and sometimes it doesn’t matter if the way you go about it is ugly or not.”

“We may have won both our games so far, but we’ve definitely not played to the best of our capabilities, that’s still to come. However one thing we have shown is that we are a 90 minute team and stick together and we show our quality in the end.”

Clashes between the sides across the years – typically on the opening day of previous seasons – have been tight affairs with four draws out of the fourteen fixtures however its Spartans who lead in terms of victories by 8 to Stirling’s two so far. 

Goals are often in supply with an average of almost three per game, with forty goals between the teams in Lowland League outings.  Spartans leading the charge to the net with 24 however it’s the Students who have scored most in a single game, four at Forthbank in April 2019.

Dougie Samuel’s squad selection gets tougher this weekend with the return to the side of Blair Carswell, Blair Atkinson and Michael Bolochoweckyi plus new on-loan signing Keir Russell.  The latter moves from Kilmarnock but he is no stranger to Ainslie Park having been at the club all the way through to Under 16s before his move to Rugby Park.

Kick-off is at 3pm and under no circumstances should supporters seek to travel to watch the game.  We will be live streaming the match via our You Tube channel.