25th June 2022 The Spartans 2 East Fife 1

 

First game of 2022/23 season today with Spartans playing East Fife in a pre-season friendly. I had ordered yt season ticket online and got a text saying that it would be available for collection st the office when I arrived attar Ainslie Park. I left home at 13.40:to walk to the ground along the old railway path and arrived there just after 14.30. I went to the turnstile and let through free of charge to pick up my season ticket. I then wandered up to the bar and picked up a Coke  before the match started. No programmes were on sale for a pre-season friendly. Disappointingly no teamsheets or tannoy team announcements were made. 

Spartans manager Dougie Samuel recently stated i the press that he needed a settled defence for the forthcoming season given the number of defenders who had been used last season. Keeper Blair Carswell returned to the side after injury issues last year as did defender Mikey Allan. Two new signings were also included in the defence with Jordan Tapping, formerly with East Stiring and Harvey Swann from Cowdenbeath. Jamie Dishington was unavailable and was replaced by a trialist in the number seven shirt. The Trialist was, I believe, Rhys Armstrong who was with Caledonian Braves last season.  Upfront Blair Henderson was joined by Scott Maxwell with new signing Jamie Penker on the bench as back-up. I had not seen East Fife play for some time but recognised former Edinburgh City striker Scott Shepherd in the attack. I have managed to name the East Fife side from a number of sources but could nee wrong in a couple of names.

The first half of the match was what is typically expected from a pre-season friendly with players taking little risk and no major excitement. East Fife took the lead in six minutes after being awarded a free-kick about twenty yards from goal towards the left of the penalty area. Scott Mercer took the kick and sent a beautiful strike into the top right hand corner of the net giving Carswell no chance of stopping the ball. Following the goal there was a shower of rain and I moved into the stand where I met Alan. After and thirty minutes Shepherd chased a through ball but Carswell was quick of his line to clear. The East Fife Trialist number ten was booked for bringing down Bradley Walsh from behind. The challenge provoked a little excitement as players for both sides surrounded the referee express their views on the challenge. Just before halftime Tapping appeared to go over his ankle near the Spartans dugout. After some treatment he limped off to be replaced by Chris Inglis.

The second half was a big improvement particularly from a Spartans viewpoint although there was numerous stoppages in play as both sides made a number of substitutions. Strangely Spartans made two changes after forty-seven minutes, replacing Mikey Herd and Trialist with Penker and Gregor Woods. Surely it would have been better to have made these changes at halftime rather than minutes into the second half. There was an early scare for Ian McFarland who went down after blocking an East Fife shot with his face on the edge of the Spartans penalty box.Thankfully he recovered after treatment. Inglis almost gifted East Fife a second goal with a short passbook but Carswell was quick from his line to block Shepherds shot with his legs. Spartans then had a clear penalty denied when Penker burst in the penalty area and was  pulled back by a defender but the refereee waved play-on. Spartans equalised in eighty-two minutes when a corner from the right by Sam Coats bounced off a number of legs in the penalty box before landing at the feet of Inglis who shot home. Minutes later East Fife had a chance with Jack Healey breaking down the left. His shot from around twenty yards was again blocked by Carswell. Spartans went ahead in the last minute of the match when Cammy Russell drove forward and played a one two on the edge of the East Fife box with Whyte. Despite attempts to pull the forward back, Russell ran onto the return ball and shot past Allan Fleming in the East Fife goal from around fifteen yards. The referee blew the final whistle seconds after the game restarted. 

After the final whistle Alan and I walked up to Ferry Road, moaning on the way that the 27 bus always seemed to go minutes early to allow us to catch it after walking up from the ground. Well we were wrong this time as we rounded the corner into Ferry Road to find it was due in four minutes. Alan got off at the Meadows to go and watch some cricket while I continued on to Leamington Terrace before arriving home around 17.30. While it was not the greatest of matches it was good to get back to watching football after a break of three weeks from the end of last season. 

Teams

Spartans: Carswell, Herd, Swann, Tapping, Allan, Whyte, Trialist, McFarland, Henderson, Jones, Maxwell.

Subs: Inglis, Penker, Woods, Coats, Russell, Waugh

East Fife: Fleming, Mercer, Murdoch, Newton, Trialist, Trialist, Anderson, Mansouri, Cunningham, Shepherd, Healy.