Youth players from Civil Service Strollers are celebrating after being awarded £1,000 by The Old Kirk and Muirhouse Parish Church. The local church organised a participatory budgeting event last weekend and Civil Youth was among six local projects to share in the £4500 ‘Your Voice, Your Choice’ fund. Continue reading Strollers youth section celebrate local funding boost
Saturday 23 December – kick off 2pm
Christie Gillies Park, Marine Drive
Civil Service Strollers club secretary Keith Stewart writes about an initiative to tackle a problem that continues to blight our ‘beautiful game’:
Civil Service Strollers is the only football club in Edinburgh that has received funding from the Scottish Government’s Voluntary Action Fund to undertake workshops on understanding sectarianism and how it affects the community.
We recognise the problem sectarianism plays in dividing communities, particularly in relation to football allegiance, and have set out to work with players and the local community to participate in informal education workshops that help increase their understanding of the issue and the negative impact on everyday interactions.
The workshops will culminate into a public event, when a range of community stakeholders will be invited to witness the showcasing of Civil Service Strollers workshop participants journey on achieving its aim of non- tolerance to sectarian behaviours in their football community.
A club spokesman said: “It’s about football clubs taking a stance to address sectarian issues that exist by bringing everyone together to understand the impact of sectarian behaviours on day to day relationships.”
Anyone interested in taking part in weekly community workshops should contact Club Secretary Keith Stewart on 07402521912
This weekend sees four local football sides in action.
Muirhouse based Civil Service Strollers are playing host to borders side Selkirk FC in the King Cup, Selkirk find themselves near the bottom of the First Division and Civil Service are occupying fourth spot in the Premier League. Civil will be hoping to bounce back from their dire weekend last week where they were beaten 7-3 by Midlothian club Whitehill Welfare.
Spartans travel to Peffermill to play Edinburgh University in the King Cup also, Spartans were also beaten last week by Stirling University and they will be hoping to return to winning ways tomorrow.
Match of the day has to be the Craigroyston v Leith Athletic fixture, Leith and Craigroyston are contenders for promotion from the first division and played each other at the tail end of last year in the Alex Jack Cup Final which leith ran out one nil winners.
All the games kick off at 2.30pm and you can find more information at the East of Scotland FA website
There were mixed fortunes for the two local clubs in Saturday’s Scottish Cup second round ties. The Spartans suffered a 2-0 defeat at home to Wick Academy, but Civil Service Strollers go marching on into Round Three following a fine 4-0 victory over Newton Stewart.
Civil Service Strollers welcome Spartans to Marine Drive in an East of Scotland League match this Saturday (1 September) at 2.30pm.
North Edinburgh’s two representatives both received home ties in yesterday’s Scottish Cup First Round Draw at Edinburgh Castle, with Spartans drawn at home to Wick Academy and Civil Service Strollers hosting Newton Stewart.
Wick, who finished eighth in the Press & Journal Highland League last term, will travel to Spartans’ Ainslie Park at the end of next month and clock up some 600 miles on the day. The Strollers’ opponents Newton Stewart finished a respectable sixth in the South of Scotland League last season, and The Creesiders make the journey to Silverknowes from Dumfries and Galloway.
Both East of Scotland League clubs have home advantage and will be relatively pleased with the draws they were given.
Douglas Samuel’s Spartans will want to finish the job at Ainslie as a draw would mean a replay at Wick’s Harmsworth Park, with the extremely long journey to get there. The ground is the most northerly professional football stadium in the United Kingdom. The embarrassment of being thrown out last year after fielding an ineligible player in their 2-0 second round win at Culter (and thus missing out on hosting Partick Thistle) will more than likely inspire the side this year to go on another famous run.
Civil Service will hope the travelling affects Newton Stewart too as they welcome the South of Scotland club to Edinburgh. Strollers will be hoping to do better in the national cup than they did last year – Fraserburgh defeating them 4-3 in the first round. That defeat denied the Strollers’ a home tie against Third Division Elgin City, so recently appointed manager Chick McAleavey will hope his side can progress into the next phase of the tournament.
Last season’s victorious Heart of Midlothian captain, Marius Zaliuskas, joined Scottish FA Commercial Director Kenny MacLeod, and David Russell, William Hill Group HR Director, to conduct the draw. Here is the full draw:
1. Threave Rovers v Vale of Leithen
2. Bonnyrigg Rose v Girvan
3. Huntly v Wigtown & Bladnoch
4. Shotts Bon Accord v Edinburgh City
5. Irvine Meadow v Gala Fairydean
6. Edinburgh University v Keith or St Cuthbert Wanderers
7. Formartine United v Brora Rangers
8. Civil Service Strollers v Newton Stewart
9. Spartans v Wick Academy
10. Glasgow University v Selkirk
11. Clachnacuddin v Lossiemouth
12. Hawick Royal Albert v Golspie Sutherland
13. Fraserburgh v Coldstream
14. Whitehill Welfare v Inverurie Loco Works
15. Buckie Thistle v Rothes
16. Hermes v Deveronvale
17. Fort William or Preston Athletic v Nairn County
18. Turriff United v Burntisland Shipyard
Ties are due to be played on Saturday, 25th August 2012.
Civil Service Strollers are running football training sessions for youngsters on Saturday mornings at their Telford College Playing Fields home on Marine Drive.
Operating in partnership with Play2learn Sports Coaching, Diamond Football is fast-flowing four-a-side football game that ensures young players get more touches, develops positional awareness and improves first-touch skills – and most important, it’s fun to play!
Sessions are held for children (boys and girls both welcome) born in 2005 or 2006 from 9.30am and it’s a 10.30am start for children born in 2007 and 2008.
Each player receives quality coaching, chances to win medals and prizes and can have a lot of fun too. For further information call Shane at Play2Learn on 07952 147 577, email Shane@Play2Learn.info
Civil Service Strollers is one of Edinburgh’s oldest football clubs – the Strollers were founded in 1908 – and the club has strong roots in the North Edinburgh area, having been based at the former Civil Service Playing Fields on Marine Drive (now operated by Edinburgh’s Teford College) for well over fifty years. The club is keen to see more local youngsters enjoying the game and is launching a new Saturday morning soccer school this weekend.
General manager Tom Brown said: ‘We are starting up a regular Saturday morning soccer school for both boys and girls on Saturday ( 28 April) and we hope lots of young people will come along. The plan is to have two groups – one for 4-6 year old and the other from 6- 10 and the emphasis will be on enjoying the game and having fun. We are trying to engage the local kids to form a community hub and Saturday’s soccer school is just the start.”
Stroller’s Saturday soccer school starts at 9.30 at the playing fields on Marine Drive.
STROLLERS progressed to the third round of the Image Printers Cup despiteLeithgoing two up within ten minutes.
The game was settled with a penalty in injury time and Strollers boss Garry Aitchison said: “It was frustrating going two behind in the opening minutes but I knew we had the firepower within the team to stage a comeback. I knew if we could get one goal back we had a chance of doing it.
“I am disappointed with the goals that we lost and we need to work on that.
“Danny Rennie scored two great goals to level it for us. Leith kept coming at us, when we went a goal in front I thought it would have settled up a bit but, fair play to Leith, they never gave up and I think we lost a sloppy third goal.
“I will take the victory but we do have things to work on. But the bottom line is that we are through to the next round. I must give credit to the players who fought back after going behind so early on in the game.
“Up front for us has been difficult as so far we haven’t been able to put out regular team, we have a few players out and its been hard. I am delighted with the result but not so delighted with the performance, but at the end of the day we are through to the next round. We now have to concentrate on this week’s Scottish Cup tie.”
Strollers almost took the lead when Chris Inglis broke away and his shot was netbound until Matthew Banks somehow managed to get a hand on the ball and push it over the bar.
Then some slack defending from Strollers gifted Greg Tulloch with an opportunity and the young striker slotted the ball into the net. A few minutes later Tulloch broke the offside trap and raced into the Strollers box then prodded the ball past the advancing keeper Stuart Burnside.
Strollers then went on the attack and when Danny Rennie was played in he went on a great attacking run and rounded Banks in the Leith goal before knocking the ball into the empty net. Rennie was again played in on the half-hour mark and his powerful shot arrowed into the back of the net leaving Banks with no chance.
Craig Anderson then put Strollers in front when Leith failed to clear the danger from a corner. Anderson picked the ball up on the edge of the box and his shot took a deflection as it went through a crowd of players and the ball trickled over the line. That lead didn’t last long however, and when Strollers failed to pick up Stephen Barrie from a corner he had the simple task of smashing the ball into the net to level it again.
Just as it looked like extra time was on the cards Strollers’ new signing Scott Gormley broke away and was fouled by Douglas Thom in the box with the referee awarding a penalty.
Gormley stepped up and converted the spot kick to seal the victory.
Leith Manager Derek Riddell said: “We went two up against the run of play, Civil had a lot of good chances early on. We then had a good spell of play and when were two up I think we switched off. When your playing against a good front line that Civil have you can’t afford to switch off and they pulled two back. I thought we were the better team in the second half, we had a slow start but I thought we created more chances and it was a sucker punch to loose a penalty late on in the game.
“We created lots of chances especially in the first half but we didn’t get the break of the ball. We have lacked in these breaks over the season and so far lots of things have gone against us in games. However, we are creating good chances and I would be more concerned if we weren’t creating chances.”
Leith Athletic: Banks, C Barrie, Black, Bremmer, Combe (Moonie 75), Lynch, Steven, Tainsh, Thom, Tracey (S Barrie 65), Tulloch. Subs: S Barrie, Moonie, Shield, Smith, Lawson.
Civil Service Strollers: Burnside, Fraser, Jack, Inglis, Dickson (Somerville 87), Campbell, Abbot (Lynch 77), Gormley, Rennie, MacBrayne, Anderson. Subs: Lynch, Wyman, Somerville, Hewitt, Cadger.
Leith Athletic 3
Civil Service Strollers 4
Taken from: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/Strollers-win-game-of-seesaw.6838956.jp?articlepage=2
