11th August 2002
Fir Park Corner vs Sparta Jag
Hamilton Palace, Hamilton
A visit to Motherwell was the opening match for Sparta in the 2002/03 IFA
League campaign. Fir Park Corner proved themselves to be a far superior side
to the one which Sparta had crushed 9-4 last summer.
Fir Park Corner opened the scoring very early on, before Sparta had even
woken up. Fortunately for Sparta, this served as a much needed alarm call
and a double from Rab Stirling gave Sparta the lead at the interval.
Sparta then survived an early second half scare when FPC had the ball in the
back of the net. The effort was chopped off though, as the FPC player had
shouted "mine" as the ball was crossed in.
The second half was a keenly fought contest, but the only scoring came
seconds before the final whistle. Good play from Rab Stirling created a
chance which the goalkeeper could only parry. The ball was about to break to
Marcos Aranda, but Rab nipped in and stole the ball from Marcos to score his
third of the afternoon.
Another solid performance from Sparta, capped with a fine hat-trick from Rab
Stirling.
Full time: Fir Park Corner 1 Sparta Jag 3
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