The Spartans opened up their trio of pre-season challenge matches with a 3-2 win over Championship outfit Ayr United at the Vanloq Community Stadium.
Douglas Samuel had the first opportunity to see his side in action after the brief close season, with a match day squad featuring no fewer than eight trialists on a pleasantly warm evening in North Edinburgh.
Visitors Ayr United headed to the Capital on their third outing so far, with a win over East Stirling and a draw against The New Saints to date.
It looked like former Spartans trialist Scott Brown’s side had made the perfect start to maintaining their unbeaten start when Curtis Main set up Jamie Murphy to fire a low drive into the bottom corner.
Spartans looked to rally against their lofty opponents with a rare venture towards the café end that saw Jamie Dishington make progress however his intended pass to Cammy Russell just offering too much pace.
Then, within a three minute window, the pendulum swung in favour of the SPFL 2 side, with a two goal double whammy from Cragsy and Cammy.
Playmaker Cammy Russell saw his run towards goal terminated by a rash challenge by Marco Rus on the edge of the box. Up stepped James Craigen who sent the ball over the wall and beyond the despairing dive of David Mitchell to tuck away the effort inside the keeper’s near post.
With the home support still salivating over the strike, they were to shield their eyes from the low setting sun to focus on Cammy Russell picking up the scraps from a defensive faux pas to race towards goal and he slotted home in a one-on-one exchange with an exposed Mitchell.
The first half scoring wasn’t to end there. Callum Booth saw his challenge penalised and it was Jamie Murphy who delivered his second of the night with a well hit free-kick that evaded the Trialist custodian of the home net.
But for the Ayr wall doing better this time from a Craigen free-kick and the Spartans keeper producing a decent low save at the other end, the scoreboard could have been ticking over further in a high tempo friendly offering fans value for their hard-earned dollar.
HT: The Spartans 2-2 Ayr United
In a shock pre-season move, changes rung at the break and fresh legs introduced with the Trialist family well represented.
If James Craigen’s earlier free-kick was sublime, his early effort after the break from just inside the Ayr half to outfox Mitchell who was found off his line would have been ridiculous if it hadn’t drifted wide at the business end of the ball’s trajectory.
He was however not to be denied his second of the night – and ultimately the winner – just before the hour mark.
Craigen looked to be the architect in build up play with a delightfully weighted defence splitting pass to find Bradley Whyte who gathered and headed towards the box. His journey was crudely curtailed by a clumsy Nick McAllister who clattered into the Spartans man who went sprawling some distance inside the penalty box.
“Penalty!” was the cry. Free-kick on the ultimate edge of the area was the decision. No polite remonstrations from skipper Kevin Waugh could convince Referee Ryan Lee otherwise on his decision.
Despite the deliberation and frustration that unfolded, up stepped James Craigen who, with a little help from a deflection from the wall, left the keeper flat-footed to look on as the ball agonisingly reached its ultimate destination.
The respective benches where emptied midway through the half with Spartans up first with their suite of swaps before Ayr made no fewer than seven changes with 20 minutes to go. The beauty of pre-season games, a nightmare for tannoy announcers across the land!
With the nights now fair drawing in, the floodlights were introduced as the game entered its final stages.
The respective fresh legs enjoyed their endeavours however there was to be no further ball x net activity and with that, Spartans kicked-off their season with a win.
FT: The Spartans 3-2 Ayr United
