26th April 2019 The Spartans v Kelly Hearts. 1-1 (Spartans won 3-2 on penalties)

Friday and after a busy day I headed to Ainslie Park for tonights Lowland league Cup tie between Spartans and Kelty Hearts. The Lowland League Cup is an end of season filler and is contested by all team within the Lowland League. Last year Spartans, as champions, withdrew from the League Cup to concentrate on the end of season play-offs which can lead to promotion to the SPFL and this years champions, East Kilbride, have followed suit. It should be a close game tonight with Kelty having finished third in the league while Spartans finished one place below. Left the house at 18.30 and walked to the West End to catch a bus down the road. Caught a 37 but thought I was going to be early so got of at the foot of Orchard Brae and walked the rest of the way arriving around 17.20. Headed to cafe/bar after I got in for a coffee and met Jim there. We had a chat about various football matters. Jim had been to the last game at Workington's Borough Park on Monday but was disappointed with the lack of commitment by the club to the occasion. Workington lost 2-0  to Lancaster prior to moving to share Derwent Park with the local Rugby league side before moving to the shared Allerdale Park on completion in 20121. We moved down to pitch side just before kickoff and took up position near the Kelty dugout.

Spartans had a number of issues with player unavailability due to Injury, suspension (David Greenhill) and holidays (Jason Stevens). Murray Hand from the successful U-20 made his starting debut after a number of appearances from the bench while four other U-20 players were on the bench. Kelty had a strong side out with ex-Hearts player Sean McKirdy included in the starting line-up. McKirdy played a few first team games with Hearts under Robbie Neilson before moving to Hamilton Accies. He had a short spell on loan at Berwick Rangers before moving into the Lowland League. He played with Selkirk and Gala Fairydean Rovers before joined Kelty in March this year. He is currently a PT instructor and spends a lot of time at Ainslie Park Leisure Centre so this could almost be classed as a home game for him.

The game started slowly and Spartans had an early chance when Scott Maxwells in- swinging corner was scrambled away from the goal by Kelty keeper Scott Christie. Kelty had a chance after twelve minutes when a header from Stuart Cargill hit the crossbar after good run and cross by Elliot Ford. Cargill tried to force home the rebound but the Spartans defence managed to clear the ball. There-after the game was mainly in midfield with few chances and the entertainment was provided by listening to Barry Ferguson in the Kelty technical area. He seemed to be shouting mostly at players closest to him with full-back Scott McBride being a constant target. Shouts of "what are you f****** doing there Bridey?" and "stay f****** close to him. keep concentrating'  were typical of his vocal encouragement. Just before halftime Spartans had a chance with a free kick around twenty-five yards out on the left. Alan Brown fired the ball at goal rather than attempt to cross the ball into the area. Christie did well to push the ball away with Maxwell unable to connect with the rebound before the ball was cleared.

The second half was more of the same with few clearcut chances. Brown had a good close range header well saved by Christie after a cross from Gary Cennerazzo before Ian McFarland cleared the ball off the Spartans goal line after a corner. Spartans then replaced Hand with Nicky Reid. After an hour Michael Herd when down injured after he appeared to overstretch and although he continued after treatment he was replaced minutes later by Josh Wishart. Reid made a good impression on his debut with his willingness to run with the ball. He also had a couple of shots but these flew high and wide. He had a headed chance after another cross from Cennerazzo but the attempt was straight at Christie.  Maxwell tried a shot from thirty yards after the ball was cleared out to him on the right hand side of the penalty box. His shot hit the junction of the far post and bar with Christie helpless and bounced away to safety. The rain started just prior to the end of the match and we move across to the stand to avoid getting too wet.

This proved to be a good plan as when the tie moved into extra time the heavens opened and the rain started to pour down and bounce of the roof of the stand. Given the weather earlier in the day I was not wearing a waterproof jacket and I had visions of getting soaked heading from the ground to the bus stop. Extra time mirrored the rest of the game with action mainly in midfield. We did however get two goals to cheer. Kelty took the lead after 102 minutes when a cross from the left by McBride was heading home by diving substitute Chris Dodd. Spartans however equalised with four minutes to go when a free-kick from Aaron Scott from the left touchline was headed home by another substitute. Josh Wishart leaping to head home from around eight yards.

Th tie then moved to a penalty shoot-out, or kicks from the penalty mark to give it its proper title, to decide who was going forward to the next round. The kicks were taken at the Ferry Road end of the ground and thankfully the rain had now ceased. The penalty sequence went as follows:

Blair Carswell saved from Dodds      0-0
Adam Corbett scored for Spartans   1-0
Carswell saved from Scott Dalziel    1-0
Christie saved from Maxwell             1-0
McBride scored for Kelty                   1-1
Scott scored for Spartans                  2-1
Stephen Husband scored for Kelty    2-2
Blair Atkinson scored for Spartans    3-2
Carswell saved from Douglas            3-2

Spartans qualified for the next round thanks to the three saves from keeper Carswell. Interestingly each of the saves saw the ball rebound back into play rather than being held or pushed out of play. In a game situation the penalty taker may have had an opportunity to net from the rebound, not that Spartans cared. This is the second time I have seen Carswell excel at stopping penalties as I saw him save three in a match against Edinburgh City a few years ago.

After the end of the game I rushed up to Ferry Road and as I turned the corner I saw a 27 bus at the stop with passengers getting on. I ran the the stop and thankfully the driver waited for me. Arrived home around 23.00 and for once did not have to do the last dog walk as Natale had already taken him out.


Teams
Spartans: Carswell, Canerazzo, Maxwell, Tolmie, Corbett, Scott, Atkinson, McFarland, Hand, Brown, Herd.
Subs: Reid, Wishart
Kelty Hearts: Christie, Ford, McBride, Carstairs, Douglas, O'Neil, Husband, McKirdy, Cargill, Ritchie, Campbell.
Sybs: Dodd, Chalmers.