Hugh Cullen
Spartans Under 14s Whites won the League Cup last Thursday after a season that has seen them go from bottom of the league to cup glory in a matter of months.
The league campaign started poorly with the team losing 10 games in a row, which saw them drop out of most competitions and fall to the bottom of the table. The Head Coach left and a new coaching team took over. Hugh Cullen, Lewis Melee and Greg Atkinson became the youngest coaches in the club at the ages of 16, 17 and 17 respectively.
Soon, the side started scoring goals and their first win came away to Gullane in the League Cup- this gave the boys a huge lift and soon they became more confident in their ability and started to play some good, attractive football. One of the real signs that this team was not to be taken lightly was when Spartans defeated top of the table Dalkieth 4-2 in an entertaining match at Marine Drive.
It has been revealed that the team actually came very close to folding when the team’s goalkeeper decided to leave the club however they were saved when Finlay Kidd boldly volunteered to wear the number one jersey and, in fact, had a great season in between the posts. The side were also helped when, midway through the season, there was a new addition to the side. Samuel Nhamburo scored twelve goals in his first two games and only failed to score on two occasions, both against eventual league champions Fernieside.
Spartans went on to go undefeated in the League cup and finished in top position in their five man group and thrashed Leith Athletic 6-2 to progress to the final (Nhamburo scoring five). In the final they faced Fernieside who are the only team that they lost to in 2012. Spartans took an early lead through a 25-yard goal from Daniel Anderson however Fernieside got back into the game and led going into injury time. Spartans substitute scored in the last minute of the 90 and then with four minutes of injury time played, Gabriel Hill scored the winner, topping off a fantastic season for the boys.
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