The Spartans welcome Stranraer to the Vanloq Community Stadium on Saturday in week 14 of William Hill SPFL 2.
It’s an encounter that sees two in-form sides go head to head for the second time this season – Spartans earning the bragging rights in the opening encounter at Stair Park back in September with a 0-2 victory over the hosts, courtesy of goals from Jamie Dishington and Cammy Russell.
Picking up the clean sheet between the sticks that afternoon was Paddy Martin who made his move to North Edinburgh in the summer. Ahead of the return fixture, the shot-stopper spoke of his early days at the club and looked to the weekend’s action against Stanraer.
Paddy said, “Coming here in the summer, everyone has been really welcoming and that’s made it a lot easier to fit in. It’s been good so far this season, obviously we’re top of the league for now however we are very aware that we need to work hard week in, week out, to keep that going.
“In terms of Stranraer, we’ve been made aware in no uncertain terms about how difficult it’s going to be on Saturday.
“We saw how they performed against us with eleven players earlier in the season and it took us some time to finally break them down. You know, they’re not going to sit back and just hope to nick it. They’re going to be in our faces. They’re going to be aggressive and they look very well organised. It’ll definitely be a testing game hopefully one can come out on the right side again.”
Martin’s hat-trick of clean sheets have contributed towards the positive start to the season, one that the goalie knows the side must continue to keep building on the campaign continues to gather momentum.
“As a squad, I think we’ve been really open to learning and being honest about how we can continue to improve. It’s been really quite meticulous in comparison to where I’ve been before and probably as close to full time set-up as you’ll get in part time football.
So, yeah, we’ve been very honest with ourselves. I think that hunger and desire to improve has certainly held us in good stead in terms of our start, but we know that especially in League 2, you’ve got to be at it every single game, otherwise teams will punish you. It’s one of those leagues where freak results are common so we’ve got to be at it every single week if we want to stay where we are in the table.”
Admission Prices:
- Adults: £18
- Concessions (16 to 18, 65+): £13
- 15 and under: £6
