Spartans 1-2 East Stirlingshire: Shire prevail against Cup specialists

Published on Friday 19 November 2010 17:04

Spartans 1 McLeod 54 East Stirlingshire 2 Weaver 42, Dunn 69

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• Hats off to 'Shire: A young Spartans fan in a sombrero watches yesterday's cup tie at Ainslie park. Photograph: Toby Williams

And so the drought goes on. Spartans, those seasoned Scottish Cup shock merchants, have now gone two campaigns without victory over SFL opposition and appear to have temporarily lost the ability to unsettle more illustrious foes since switching from the ramshackle City Park to the impressive Ainslie Park just round the corner.

East Stirlingshire became the latest league side to venture to north Edinburgh, soak up a fair amount of pressure and ultimately move into the next round after Forfar did likewise a year ago.

Languishing third from bottom of the Third Division on the back of two successive home defeats, there was a strong feeling in the run-up to this tie that Jim McInally's side could find themselves on the wrong end of an upset. Spartans away is never an easy proposition for any SFL side, far less one whose self-belief levels are some way short of optimum. Shire's need to subdue their hosts, therefore, was obvious, and although they succeeded in doing this for the first few minutes, Spartans, who were forced to wear their sky blue away top in order to prevent a clash with Shire's black and white hoops, soon settled into the match and set about pressing the visitors back into their own half.

The Edinburgh outfit created a couple of half chances, but did little to threaten Michael Andrews' net until the 15th minute when Donal Henretty slid in at the far post and just failed to apply the finishing touch to Jack Beesley's tantalising delivery across the face of the goal.

But just four minutes before the interval, and with their first telling effort on goal, Shire pierced Spartans' growing bubble of optimism as Paul Weaver unleashed a crisp shot from the edge of the box which flew past Chris Flockhart and rippled the net. To their credit, however, Spartans responded well after the break and found themselves level within ten minutes of the restart when Keith McLeod slid in to add his 203rd goal for the club from a Gavin Malin cross.

Spartans' tails were up again and Malin saw an effort tipped wide by Andrews. But once again they were made to pay for failing to take advantage when their opponents were on the ropes. This time it was David Dunn who put Shire back in front with a superb free-kick from the edge of the box after 69 minutes. Spartans rallied late on but the visitors weathered the storm much to the delight of the travelling fans who danced topless in the drizzle.