We ran out 2-1 winners against Edinburgh United in hard fought league
game at the academy on Saturday. United were a much changed side
from the one that we played up at Paties Road a few weeks ago, the
new management team have brought in a few players to strengthen
their squad.
Kenny Andy and I were disappointed to have a few of the players yet
again arriving late for the scheduled meet up time and we have again
stressed the importance of discipline in relation to time keeping etc,
lets hope that this is the last time I have to mention this issue.
Onto the game with some surface water on the pitch the ball was
moving very quickly and the pace of the game was fast.
After 4 minutes we found ourselves in a bit of trouble as Big Muzz
brought down a United player in the box following on from a corner,
however Muzz redeemed himself by saving the penalty kick low
down to his right hand side.
We started to apply some pressure to the United goal and created
some good chances and after 35 minutes we took the lead with a
well executed goal when we broke down our right side and the ball
was delivered quickly to Adam who cooly stuck the ball inside the far
away post.
We then continued to press forward and just before half time we were
awarded a corner kick which Rosco delivered to the back post and
Hammy dispatched the ball into the back of the net with his left foot.
Half Time 2-0 Spartans
The second half saw us continue to create chances and we should
have extended our lead on at least two occasions when we had an
overload of players against the United defence but our final choice
of pass or execution let us down.
Then with 15 minutes to go we gave away a free kick on the left side
of the park and from the resulting free kick the ball came of the back
of Zav’s and looped over Muzz into the back of the net, United then
created a couple of further chances which we were able to deal with
and the game finished 2-1 to Spartans and we picked up all 3 points
Kenny, Andy and I felt that overall on the day the result was most
important thing and whilst we have played better football we came
away with 3 points and now we now look forward to the challenge of
Fauldhouse next week and the return of some of our ex players to
the Academy, this will be a really tough challenge for the players
and we will need to ensure that they are fully focussed on the game.
Team; Jackson, Boyce, Hamilton, Sutherland, Thomson, Stewart, Milligan, Elliot (Cunningham), Zavaroni, Perry (Roberts), Wringe.
Subs: Rooney, Kidd, Armstrong.
Tonight we have taken the opportunity to play a Hearts X1 up at the Riccarton complex, Darren Murray the Hearts U19 coach contacted us to see if we would take on the match.
Kenny , Andy and I thought it was a good opportunity to get some much needed game time for some of the players, against what will be a very strong Hearts side.
We have a couple of injury worries in Darran and Adam however this gives us the opportunity to bring in some other players such as young Ian the under 19’s goalkeeper, Calum Donnelly from the 19’s also Liam Donnely who played his first competitive 90 minutes on Saturday for the U21’s and Jordan Finnie from the 19’s.
The match kicks off at 7.00 pm
