The Spartans v Forfar Athletic – match preview

The ‘Loons’ head to the Capital City on Saturday to face a Spartans side currently sitting in fourth spot in the cinch league2 table.

Ray McKinnon’s side head for Ainslie Park in confident mood on the back of an eleven game unbeaten run, but as Ray McKinnon freely admits, keen to secure all three points on the day after a recent run of four drawn fixtures over a five match spell.

There is little doubt that following the home success over Clyde three weeks back, victories could have been the outcome of the clashes with Stenhousemuir and Elgin had chances been taken, but to coin an old Station Park phrase, ‘ a draw was aboot richt’ at the end of the ninety minutes on both occasions.

Those results over the past fortnight sees Forfar now sit with a record of fifteen drawn fixtures from the thirty games played, a record only equalled in the major UK leagues by Huddersfield Town, Charlton Athletic and Grimsby Town who have all played at least eight games more prior to the Easter weekend fixtures.
Despite the excellent and most welcome run the Station Park squad have been on since Christmas, what might have been if two or three of those drawn games had been turned into victory.

Back to reality however and Andy Munro and his colleagues are still battling to pull fully away from at present the bottom three clubs in the league table, two of whom clash at Stair Park tomorrow.

On the availability front for the trip to face Dougie Samuel’s side, the good news is the return to full fitness of Tomas Brindley who netted the only goal of the game when Spartans visited Station Park early last month.
Word however is awaited from his parent club Dundee in regard to the fitness of Finlay Allan who has been receiving treatment for a strain in recent days.

Spartans have had a mixed bag of results in recent weeks, goalless draws with Stenhousemuir and Clyde being recorded either side of an amazing 6-2 home defeat from Dumbarton.
The league’s leading scorer Blair Henderson was injured in the first half of the encounter with the ‘Sons’ and was subsequently an unused substitute against the ‘Bully ~Wee’ last Saturday.

Ray McKinnon has no doubt as one would expect that victory is achievable in Edinburgh on Saturday but as ever in this tight knit league at present, the players will have to be at their best from the first whistle as they have undoubtedly been in recent times if they are to ‘bring home the bacon.’

Saturday’s fixture has the usual 3p.m. kick-off and the man in the middle is Chris Fordyce who will be taking charge of a third ‘Loons’ away fixture of the campaign.

Admission prices at Ainslie Park are as follows;-
Adults £15
Concessions £10
12/16 year olds £5
Under 12’s free
Tickets can be purchased in advance through the Fanbase Website, see the Spartans website for full details.

Payment by cash or credit card is also accepted at the turnstiles on the day.

Saturday’s other cinch league2 fixtures;-Dumbarton v Stenhousemuir, East Fife v Elgin City, Peterhead v Clyde, Stranraer v Bonnyrigg Rose