Pre Season Match 2- Spartans FC 1-5 Spartans FC Reds

Our second pre-season game was played against Alec Cunningham and Paul McGraw's Reds team, who also have just made the move from 17s up to under 19s football. Both had the honor of being the first Spartans teams to play at the academy last December, with the reds coming out on top 5-0 in that encounter. However both teams have strengthened considerably since then.
Despite the scoreline the game was actually a close encounter for 80 out of the 90 minutes. With the score at 1-1 the game was finely balanced, but the superior fitness of the Reds told in the final 10 minutes of the game. In that time the reds scored 4 goals, three of them from long range.
The reds opened the scoring early in the first third when a shot deflected off James in to the top corner in the net giving Owen no chance at all. However, Owen was rarely troubled for the next hour or so. We began to get control of the ball and slowly began to dictate more of the play, without creating any real clear cut chances. In the final minute of the first period we drew level when David won the ball off the Reds right back and fed Michael who tucked the ball in to the bottom right hand corner of the net and score our first goal of the season.
The second third was a tight affair with no team really creating anything in front of goal. The reds were pretty much camped in our half but sterling performances from Jamie and James saw there attempts at goal thwarted.
As in out first game, we began to tire in the final stages and the results showed that. Gaps began to appear in our defence and we failed to close the ball down quickly enough. However, at least two of the goals were not helped by the quality of the ball that we were playing with.
Spartans Team: 1 Owen, 2 Andy, 3 Ryan, 4 Jamie, 5 James, 6 Rory, 7 David, 8 Bambi, 9 Sam, 10 Michale, 11 Callum, 12 Mark L, 14 Stuart, 15 grant

Pre Season Match 1 - Spartans FC 0-0 EoS

Considering that this was our first ever game together as a team and that many of the boys had not played a full game since the last game of last season a nil-nil result against a very fir EoS team was very respectful indeed.
In all honesty the game was actually a very close affair with both teams having chances to score and win the game. In all fairness the EoS team probably deserved to sneak a narrow win but it was credit to our defense of David (playing out of position), Jamie, James and Ryan and not to mention many great saves from Clarke that we came out of our first game with our first clean sheet. in the first half we were actually very comfortable with Clarke not having to make a noticeable save. He fielded a couple of corner kicks very well and had to be on his toes to gather a few through balls before the EoS strikers but he did not have to make a great save. The EoS team did hit the bar once from distance but that was as close as they came. We created our own chances. Dean Brown had a chance from a free kick and Rory could not direct a header on target.
As we tired in the second half gaps began to appear. Clarke had to make at least 5 or six great save to keep our clean sheet plus an EoS striker did miss an open goal. However we could have one the game as well if EoS keeper Euan Smart had not forgotten to cut his fingernails before the game. He pushed a shot round the post i the final few minutes.
Spartans Team: 1 Clarke, 2 David, 3 Ryan, 4 James, 5 Jamie, 6 Rory, 7 Sam, 8 Bambi, 9 Callum, 10 Michael, 11 Jordan, 12 Mark L, 14, Dean, 15 Grant

Season 2009/2010

Welcome to the start of the new season.
This season sees the Spartans FC 19s from last year join forces with the Spartans 17s Blacks from last year. In doing so the team has undergone there best pre-season to date with two training sessions a week interspersed with regular pre season matches. Training has been taken place at Westwoods health club twice a week and all three games have been played on the new 3-G surface at the Spartans FC Community academy where it is hoped that we will get to play the majority of home games.
The start of the new season always brings in new faces. Remaining from the under 19s last year are Andrew Wallace, Ryan Taylor, Jamie Lockhart, Rory Grant, Callum Hunter, Michael De Angelis, Jordan Bain, Mark Scoular and David Grieve. New additions from the under 17s blacks who have succefully made the step up are Sam Lodge, Clark Vietch, James, Alan, Stuart, Mark Richardson, Mark Cable and Kyle Eddington. The other new arrival is Paul the Spartans amateur team. One noticeable return comes from goalkeeper Owen Mitchell who returns to the squad after a two year absence. This years squad already looks much stronger than last years.
Since so many players have come in players have left in order to accommodate them. Last years under 19s captain Michael Eales has moved sideways to the east of Scotland 19s team. Other absentees this year are Dean Gison, Christian Abel, John Harvey, John Sullivan and Chris Reid who have all moved in to bigger and better things. Even with these departures this years team will be better and more successful than last years team and, with a bit of luck and hard work, this years team can improve on last years 9th place finnish!