Spirited Spartans punch above their weight to defeat South

Fourth Division Spartans claimed a last-16 place at the expense of higher league opposition by edging Edinburgh South by 2-1 at Inverleith in the South East Region under-13 Lothian Buses Cup.

Goals in either half by Sean Harrison and Alexander Bothwell negated a Charlie Adams counter for South to send Spartans through and extend the home side's positive start to their debut season in eleven-a-side football.

Their visitors from Liberton provided plenty of fight, suggesting that a victory, which has eluded them so far this campaign, is not far off.

They fell behind to the hosts, though, in the opening quarter of an hour, as Harrison was on hand to turn in a cross from the left at the near post, shooting past South goalkeeper Reece Sneddon from close range.

Shortly before half-time at the other end, Adams forced the equaliser in his role as the classic lone striker. Without any team mates for company as he hunted down a forward ball, the No.?9 seized possession ahead of Spartans' Cameron Whiteman on the left-hand corner of the box before stepping inside to beat Tomas Cassidy and Ronan Harrison, then firing a low shot into the near corner past goalie Lewis Smith.

From a lone furrow emerged a textbook solo strike, and South took heart from their breach of the Spartans defence, going on to display the greater attacking potency in the second half.

Jake O'Hanlon stung the fingers of Smith soon after the restart, with the Spartans No. 1 clutching the ball only after fumbling at the first attempt. The goalkeeper then had defender Cassidy to thank, twice, for executing some well-timed sliding tackles to avert the danger posed by Arran Fraser as the South striker bore down on goal.

South pounded forward fairly consistently, but were undone by Spartans' only real attack of the second period on 43 minutes. Bothwell found himself in the clear and, despite the close attention of visiting defender Lewis Lindsay, fired under Sneddon to spark celebrations on the home touchline.

The opportunist strike proved the matchwinner, not that South went without their own, gilt-edged chance to equalise. Ten minutes later, after a Spartans defender handballed in the box, Adams again had the chance to level the scores, but pulled his penalty wide of the left-hand post.

The striker's father and namesake, South coach Charlie Adams, felt his side's performance merited a better reward. He said: "We deserved to win, but our midfield fell apart and our finishing touch wasn't there." His co-coach, former Hibs goalkeeper Jason Gardiner, added: "There weren't that many chances in the game, but a lot of players from both sides played well. We have to work on our shape for future games, and on going forward as a group."

Meanwhile, Alex Gilmore, the Spartans supremo, said: "I felt we did very well, especially considering we were playing a team two divisions above us. The boys played for each other today. We've had a good start, but until we've played everyone [in the league] it's difficult to say how the season will go."

Spartans: Lewis Smith, Forbes Bell, Alexander Bothwell, Reuben Gourlay, Ronan Harrison, Sean Harrison, Finlay Kidd, Cameron Whiteman, Finlay Rowe, Euan Rolland, Jason Scott, Tomas Cassidy, Callum Hattersley, Scott Bottomley.

Edinburgh South: Reece Sneddon, Liam Cairns, Kieran Stark, Jordan Walker, Lewis Lindsay, Robbie Gosman, Ben Gardiner, Jake O'Hanlon, Charlie Adams, Bradley Stewart, Arran Fraser, Lewis Gill, Josh Breeze.