Spartans 10 - 1 Raith Rovers
SPARTANS brilliant women’s side ended their season on an all-time high with
a crushing 10-1 win against Raith Rovers! The Edinburgh side finished second
top in a season in which they also finished runners up in a domestic cup and
reached the semi-final of the Scottish Women’s Cup. These are truly
remarkable facts and they also underline the amazing progress the squad have
made since last season. The team's terrific spokesman, Carson Ralton, said:
“We still have the same group of players from last season when we finished
19pt behind the league champions. We can’t match other better known sides in
attracting players, but we have a great squad and they are improving all the
time. They are all 'home grown'! We just missed out on winning the league
title and this win today puts us on 51pt, two behind league champions,
Glasgow City, who inflicted our only defeat of the season when they beat us
4-2 away last week.” That was the only league defeat of the season and it
denied Spartans the chance to play in Europe in the next campaign, they were
that close! The Edinburgh side were better than their opponents in all areas
of the wonderful FieldTurf pitch at the Community Football Academy at
Ainslie Park and they treated the good turnout in blazing sunshine to a
great display of attacking football, particularly in the second half when
Raith were in danger of being completely overrun. Spartans are a busy, well-organised
and skilful outfit but they made heavy weather of it in the first half,
being caught out continually by Raith’s offside trap by playing the ball
through the middle rather than using the width of the glorious pitch. The
opening goal came shortly after the start, with Molly McKean powering home a
brilliant cup back to put Spartans 1-0 ahead. The home side scored an
incredible second goal from Trialist when she hammered a sensational volley
in to the roof of the net - but the Spartans player was offside! After being
caught, frustratingly, offside several times, the second goal finally came
in the 23rd minute -an OG - after a great move up the left ended
with a fiercely hit low ball in to the Raith goalmouth and it smashed off a
defender and in to the net to put Spartans 2-0 in front. The football from
the home side was wonderful to watch, but they persisted in playing the ball
through the centre and they were caught out time and time again and it was
still only 2-0 at the break. They should have been 'out of sight' by then,
but Carson Ralton added: “We changed things for the second half and told our
players to use both wings and it paid off!” It certainly did as he said with
eight more goals in the second half for Spartans and, thankfully, one for
Raith Rovers. In the very warm sunshine, Raith were caught in a deluge of
goals and there was no place to hide as Spartans went on the rampage -
scoring four goals in the first seven minutes of a game expertly controlled
by experienced referee, Charles MacVicar and his two assistants, Aaron Hogg
and Robert Wilson. Shortly after the restart, the floodgates opened and it,
positively, rained goals. Top goal scorer, Diana Barry - is it really that
long ago that I saw this brilliant young striker play for St Augustine’s
High School - got things underway with a goal after breaking through on her
own to beat the luckless Raith keeper, Lisa McIntyre, to put Spartans 3-0 in
front. Then, another former St Augustine’s star, Danielle Pagliarulo,
smashed home a great volley from a cross from the right to make it 4-0.
Raith’s defence were in total disarray and Spartans capitalised with two
more superb goals from Trialist to take the score to 6-0. It should have
been even more, but Spartans contrived to miss two more easy chances. Kate
MacGillivray added another for Spartans with a terrific low shot from the
right of the 18yd box that went in to the net off the far post and that made
it 7-0. After the Raith goal survived in several other great Spartans’
attacking moves - up both wings - Barry scored goals No 8 and 9 for
Spartans, the second from a cutback by the hard-working Louise Young, who is
a teacher at Currie High School in Edinburgh. To complete a remarkable
second half, it was fitting that top goal scorer, Barry, took the score to
double figures. In a determined attack on the home goal in the closing
minutes, Kirsty Scott, scored for Raith Rovers to make the final scoreline
10-1. It could have, and should have, been a lot more for Spartans. They
were that good! Missing from the ranks of the home side was Claire Crosby,
the brilliant Spartans defender who I first met when she played for Drumbrae
Primary School, many, many years ago, and Sarah Archibald, who is recovering
from a serious knee injury!
Spartans - Jo Hutchison, Michaelle Faughnan, Siobhan (play it like) Rooney,
Claire Crosbie, Michelle Kerr, Danielle Pagliarulo, Hayley Lauder, Diana
Barry, Molly McKean, Trialist, Sarah Archibald, Patricia McLaughlin, Julie
Melrose, Kate MacGillivray, Louise Young, Louise Moultray.
Raith Rovers - Lisa McIntyre, Elizabeth Anderson, Nicola Glover, Erica
Thatcher, Helen Templeton, Jenny Davies, Katie Bennet, Kirsty Montigani,
Kirsty Scott, Clare Halliday, Melissa McAllister.
Referee - Charles MacVicar; assistants - Aaron Hogg and Robert Wilson.
The draw was made for the fund-raising event that included a brand new Ford
Ka, after the game and the winner was Sarah McConnar. Second prize winner
was Audrey Thomson, with ’Shiel’ the holder of the ticket for third prize
and S Thirde picking up the last of the four prizes. It was, truly, a
wonderful day at Spartans Community Football Academy.
