After midweek bus trip to Cove Rangers, the journey back home and up for the day job a few hours later, Blair Henderson was back at the training paddock on Thursday evening with his fellow Spartans, refreshed and refocussed on the weekend’s latest Premier Sports Cup Group A clash against Brechin City.
“I think we gave ourselves a decent chance of doing something in the Group stages last Saturday with a good win. Obviously it was disappointing to lose narrowly midweek, but I thought Cove were really good. They knocked the ball about really well and of course, hit the woodwork twice too. We had a few chances we weren’t just quite at it in the final third.
“We’ve parked that though, had a decent training session and being at home on Saturday is a good chance to bounce back and hopefully get another three points in the group and see where we are after that.“
Henderson is familiar with the threat Brechin City can offer, having faced the Highland League side on three occasions previously in recent times.
Season 2022-23 will be remembered by both clubs for obviously different reasons, with Spartans edging out Saturday’s opponents in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the Pyramid Play-Off semi final. Henderson scoring in open play in both legs, plus slotting home one of the success Spartans spot-kicks which set up the ultimate tie against Albion Rovers.
Fond memories of course for Henderson. “Obviously, those two games in the playoffs were both good memories for everyone here and probably bad memories for them, so they might want to put that right as well.
“I remember beating them here with the 10 men in the first leg and it was probably one of the biggest results for the club and it was one that wasn’t expected with us getting a man sent off so early in the second half. So, to score a last-minute goal was amazing and that’s kind of where it kicked us on to get promoted.”
The following year, the sides were pulled out the Scottish Cup hat together, with Spartans once again coming out on top in the rain, with a narrow 1-2 win, courtesy of goals from Bradley Whyte & Mikey Allan.
Two seasons on and another opportunity for the sides to lock horns, this time in the Premier Sports Cup.
Henderson added, “Saturday is just another game now and that kind of rivalry of trying to come up is gone. We’ll go into the game looking to build on our performances we’ve put on the park so far and hopefully that will sees us three more points to the good come full time.”
