Is it simply a question of game, set and mismatch?

Many of the Capital's waterlogged parks lay bereft of the usual furore of amateur football at the weekend but Sparta AFC of the Edinburgh and District league were spared a postponement - if not their dignity - as they crumbled 9-1 to Oxgangs AFC at Saughton 3G.

The mismatch was confirmed by a Stewart Henderson hat-trick that helped Premier Division Oxgangs to a comfortable victory over their lower-league opponents, and a brace by Stuart Steele, plus goals from Scott Thomson, Chris Kenny, Steven McArthur, and Matt Gordon cancelled out Nick Perry's solitary reply for Sparta.

Aside from a miserable afternoon for one side and an Association Cup semi final-berth for the victors, little was achieved other the latest illustration of how local amateur football can fail its more competitive member clubs - or, how many teams are ill-prepared for the rigours of the game at this level.

So, which is it - if either of the above? Five clubs have withdrawn from the Edinburgh and District Sunday Amateur FA since the campaign began, three of whom it appears did so due to poor results and a subsequent lack of players willing to be subjected to the pointless torture of facing teams of disproportionately superior ability.

Silverknowes Star pulled out of the First Division last week as a 10-0 home defeat prolonged a string of demoralising results that included a 14-0 reverse at the same venue. Corstorphine Athletic withdrew from the same league in October after one win in eight games, while Pentland Roadhouse forfeited their place in the Premier Division in January, the latest in a long line of poor performances culminating in a 5-0 home loss to Ryrie's Alba.

Andrew Mickel, the Sparta player-manager, feels that such games, while a waste of time, reflects the 'serve all' policy of the Fair Play League, as the association is known.

"We feel on a weekly basis that, very quickly, the games go one way or another," says Mickel. "It's never down to the wire in the last five minutes.

"We thought we had a better chance than what actually happened against Oxgangs.

"In a typical amateur football way, the result was dusted off pretty quickly (by our players]. We're not going to keep our heads down - every one of our players is of the personality (where they are able] to turn it into a positive.

"The Fair Play League stands for what's on the tin: playing for honesty and integrity. It's saying something about the teams who are getting beaten heavily - they almost want a different thing (from the game]."

Mickel, whose Sparta side are flying high in a close-run Second Division title chase, qualified his admiration for that ethos by saying the amateur association offers member clubs of all abilities the simple opportunity of playing football. "We have a goal difference of plus 40-odd goals in our 11 league games. Equally there are teams on minus 40. It's pretty tough for them and I can understand that may diminish their enthusiasm. But, a lot of teams are only there for a kickabout. And a lot of teams in the league are relatively new, so they're bound to be finding their feet."

Tam Finnan, boss of Sparta's latest opponents Oxgangs, said of the match: "To be honest, it was a nothing game. It's unfair to these teams, as I don't think either of the sides were able to work on much.

"Sometimes the teams who are struggling get a lack of players turning up, because it's hard for them.

"There were teams in another local amateur league who a few years back were folding 24/7 due to heavy defeats." Oxgangs' Premier rivals Boca Seniors are challenging Salters AFC at the summit of the Fair Play League.

Player-manager Glyn Bullen, 32, has sympathy with new-start teams and suggests that the implementation of a seeding process in cup competitions - where the majority of hammerings are handed out - would lessen the possibility of teams of contrasting calibre facing each other. "The first season after the club started (in 2005], we took a few hammerings," says Bullen. "It's all about establishing yourselves.

"We won a game 16-0 this year and it's not nice dishing out thrashings. You find that a lot of teams fold after such a heavy defeat. They have a new team with young lads - we've been there.

"I feel they could have some kind of seeding process in the cups. At the same time, some of the lower teams have knocked out higher teams. And in the top division, most teams can beat each other and there are only a couple of teams struggling.

"Len Blackie runs the association well and teams who have discipline problems are dealt with, which is important."