25th March 2001
Sparta Jag vs Thistle XI
West of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow
With what seemed like all potential opponents otherwise engaged, and the pitch
booked in advance, we were able to arrange at fairly short notice a game
against another team of Thistle supporters. A bit of player trading was
always going to be on the cards as Tony McGlennon and Gary Anderson had
divided loyalties, so it was decided that Anderson would turn out for "Thistle
XI" and McGlennon for Sparta Jag, with two trialists making an appearance for
us and Adam Nelson going to our opponents in a complicated swap deal. Thistle
XI had access to a set of Kaiserslautern strips so the question of who would
wear red and yellow was resolved.
A disastrous start was averted by Stevie Walker, who did well to block a shot
at close range from Thistle XI's danger man, but it was Sparta Jag who took a
surprise lead after ten minutes. A McGlennon pass found Paul Burke in a good
position and the trialist made no mistake from just inside the box. It was
around this point that Thistle XI noticed that they had only ten men while we
had Stuart Deans on the bench, so he made a brief appearance for our opponents
until their missing player turned up a few minutes later.
Despite Thistle XI making more scoring chances, we went two up midway through
the half. Craig McIntosh crossed the ball from the left flank and it was
nodded back from the far post by new man Joe Condron for Paddy Kelly to head
past the keeper into the top corner. Our opponents came close to pulling one
back when a header from a corner hit the underside of the bar and bounced on
the line before being gathered by Walker, but we could have gone further ahead
when Kelly won the race for a long ball and was unlucky to have his shot
blocked by the keeper.
Half time: Sparta Jag 2 Thistle XI 0
The game was nicely poised at the break, on balance of play at least, so no
changes were made to the teams. In any case, the game had kicked off around
20 minutes late and the referee wanted to start the second half straight away.
The decision not to swap players around was vindicated after fifteen minutes
when Thistle XI's pressure finally paid off and they pulled one back, and they
drew level shortly afterwards with a great strike from at least 30 yards. Adam
Nelson could even have put them ahead but couldn't quite connect with a ball
driven across the face of the goal.
With ten minutes left, when it was looking like we would be lucky to hold on
for a draw, Paddy Kelly found the top corner of the net with a chip from well
outside the box. It was goal worthy of winning any match and that was the way
it turned out. Kelly was unlucky to hit the post from a tight angle three
minutes later. With Thistle XI regularly forcing Walker to make vital saves,
we were hopeful at this point that another two teams would come onto the pitch
and bring the match to a halt as we were a good few minutes over our allotted
time. This didn't happen, but the closing stages were fairly uneventful and we
were able to hold out for our third successive victory.
Full time: Sparta Jag 3 Thistle XI 2
Squad: Walker S; Derrick, Maclean, Sangster, McIntosh, Deans; Burke, Arrial,
McGlennon, Condron J; Kelly, Condron P; plus Anderson and Nelson for Thistle
XI.
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