Spartans show fighting spirit to see off students

ROSS ARCHIBALD, with his fifth goal in five games, scored what proved to be the winner midway through the second half of this SFA South Region Challenge Cup semi-final when he pounced on his own rebound.

Spartans will now contest the final against Gretna 2008 who were 5-2 winners against Whitehill Welfare.

"I am playing much further forward this season on the right-hand side," said Archibald. "However, I also have to get back because that's what the management expect. For my goal we had a good combination of passes that set me up. Their goalkeeper made a great save from my first shot but the ball rebounded to me and I took my time before hitting a left-foot shot underneath him."

The game had only been going for 38 seconds when Spartans took the lead. A through ball from Alex King picked out Omar Kader who controlled it on the edge of the penalty box and hit a powerful shot which found its way behind Sam Filler with the aid of a deflection from defender Jason Atkins.

It was the perfect start for the Cup holders although they were given no time to rest on their laurel.

Lee Nichol, the former Scotland udner-19 internationalist, hit in a shot which Chris Flockhart did well to palm over the crossbar then a Nichol free kick was headed wide by Richard Milne from a good position.

Stirling deservedly equalised in the 28th minute when Chris McKee and Robertson combined to set up Michael Pentland who sent a looping header over the stranded Flockhart. The goal was a just reward for the students who did not allow their Premier Division opponents time to settle on the ball.

At the beginning of the second half, Keith McLeod was superbly set up by Archibald but again Filler showed his abilities with another excellent save which he followed up by denying King.

The match-winner arrived in the 64th minute when substitute Donal Henretty picked out Archibald and although Filler did exceptionally well to block his first effort, the rebound fell kindly for Archibald who slipped the ball below the keeper and into the net from eight yards.

The match-winner said: "Stirling, especially in the first half, played some good football and we did not retain the ball. In the second half, we changed to a 4-4-2 formation and that gave us more strength and pace up front.

"I also felt that Stirling tired a bit towards the end because they are not used to playing at our tempo every week. Their goalkeeper had some cracking saves and at times they had us under pressure.

"However, we can now look forward to the final in which I scored twice last season. As a Hearts fan it would be nice to replicate that feat at Tynecastle."

Mike Lawson, Spartans' joint manager, said: "The game was a very good advert for East of Scotland League football and Stirling University would do themselves proud in the Premier Division. They will definitely enhance the top league because we can honestly say that we were fortunate to win the game in the 90-plus minutes.

"We tried a formation in the first half that obviously did not work as Stirling hassled us off the ball. In fact, Stirling ran the show for 30 minutes without creating too many clear-cut chances. However, they could not keep the pace up for the entire game and they tired."

Raleigh Gowrie, the former Spartans player who is now head coach at Stirling University, said: "That was a good competitive contest and there was not a great deal between the teams. There were two periods in the game which determined the outcome. The first was in the opening 30 seconds or so when Omar did well to score with the help of a deflection and the second was about the hour mark when Spartans had us under the cosh and eventually scored.

"Outside these two periods I thought that we had most of the possession but lacked a cutting edge and Spartans were too powerful. Having said that, our players' effort and commitment was excellent and they applied themselves very well. The game proved that we are not too far behind the top teams in the Premier Division."

Spartans: Flockhart, O'Donnell, Hoskins, Gerrard, Sivewright, Archibald, King, Manson, McAuley (Henretty, 46), McLeod, Kader (Malin 70). Subs: Fowlie, Smith, Vinelli.

Stirling University: Filler, McCullagh, Robertson, Milne (Black, 83), Atkins, Neilsen, Pentland, Stallard (McLeish, 62), Arnold-Smith, Nichol, McKee (Mason, 75). Subs: Anderson, McCulloch.