Spartans can be 'third team'

SPARTANS will have a ground fit for the SFL this summer – and the club's management duo hope they will be given the chance to showcase it on the big stage.

The East of Scotland League side are currently in the process of building their new stadium, Ainslie Park, and it had been hoped the new facility would be ready by the end of August.

However, Gretna's resignation yesterday has cleared the way for applications for one club to make the step up to the Scottish Football League next season and Mike Lawson and Sam Lynch have both vowed that Spartans will pull out all the stops to make sure that the ground is finished as early as possible so they meet the criteria in time to make them eligible.

Spartans, Preston Athletic, Annan Athletic and Cove Rangers are all likely to submit applications to the SFL before the Thursday, June 12 deadline and Lawson insisted that every possible step will be taken to speed up the completion of Ainslie Park if they are given the green light.

Lawson said: "We believe we have a lot to offer. We are building a state-of-the-art complex at the minute and we have already got a stand and the changing rooms up.

"It might be a bit tight to get everything finished on time because we had been planning on the end of August but obviously we would pull out all of the stops if we were accepted into the SFL.

"We have been planning to seed the pitch but we may have to look at spending that little bit more and turfing it to save us some time.

"But, at the end of the day if we get in there, then we are in there for life.

"What I can say, though, is that we won't be putting money in that we don't have.

"It would be a fantastic chance for our players, 80 per cent of whom might never get the chance to play SFL football unless it is with Spartans.

"We played SFL clubs in the Scottish Cup and held our own but this is a different ball game altogether.

"We'd love the chance to prove that we could go out there and do it."

Spartans, who until the end of this season played their home games at City Park, received huge publicity from their Scottish Cup runs in recent years and Lawson hopes that raising public awareness in such a manner will help their case. He feels that the population in Edinburgh is such that the Capital would be more than able to house three senior teams and added: "We got a lot of publicity from our cup runs a couple of seasons ago and no publicity is bad publicity. Because of that there is already a good awareness of Spartans and hopefully that will stand us in good stead.

"There is currently no SFL side in Edinburgh – if Hearts or Hibs were ever to be relegated it would be for one year at the most and they would come straight back up.

"That means that teams from the Second and Third Division never play a game in Edinburgh.

"Whether the teams in the SFL want a team from Edinburgh to be invited in or not is another matter, but we feel that we have got a good chance. I think that we have got the locations, the facilities and the strength of team to more than justify our inclusion in the SFL and to hold our own against the other sides.

"We won the King Cup in our final game of the season on Monday night and lost out on the league by three points this season – and we consider that to be a bad year.

"Name-awareness of Spartans is good right now and in two out of the last three years we have reached the last 16 of the Scottish Cup – that was unheard of for a team like ourselves.

"Craig Manson was the joint top scorer for the competition alongside Henrik Larsson in 2005 and Spartans scored more goals than any other team that year, which was just amazing.

"We also took more than 1000 fans through to Love Street for a cup game so we think that Edinburgh can take a third team.

"At the moment we have around 400 people playing football for Spartans every weekend, whether it's on a Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon or a Sunday at youth levels of all ages and men's and women's football.

"If we got into the SFL those people would be bringing their families and friends along to watch games and that can only be good for the club."

Co-manager Sam Lynch insists that Spartans' ambition will remain high even if their efforts to earn entry into the SFL are knocked back this time.

He added: "The new ground that we are in the middle of building is very exciting, there will be a floodlit surface and a full Astroturf pitch, as well as pitches for the community, a running track and basketball court.

"That shows the ambition of the club.

"We have never applied to the SFL before and there is obviously no guarantee that we will get a place this time because we know there will be at least four other teams applying and everyone is on a level playing field.

"All we can do is submit our application and sit back and wait to see what happens.

"Whether we get in or not though, we will continue to work our way up and out ambitions will remain high because we believe that we can hold our own in the SFL."

Factfile
Ground: Ainslie Park, Edinburgh (under construction)

Founded: 1951

Co-managers: Mike Lawson and Sam Lynch

Record attendance (at City Park): 3346 v St Mirren (Scottish Cup, February 5, 2006)

Notable successes against League opposition: 2003-04 Scottish Cup: Alloa (a) 3-3, (h) 5-3 (aet); Arbroath (a) 4-1, Queen's Park (h) 3-2. 2005-06 Scottish Cup: Berwick Rangers (h) 1-0

Did you know: Spartans striker Craig Manson finished as equal top scorer, with five goals, in the 2003-04 Scottish Cup along with Celtic's Henrik Larsson and Inverness Caledonian Thistle's Paul Ritchie.

Roadmap to the SFL
THE Scottish Football League has invited interested clubs to apply for the vacancy in the Third Division. These are the hurdles they must clear:
• Completed applications should be received at the offices of the Scottish Football League by Thursday, June 12.

• Following a review of the applications, the Scottish Football League Management Committee will visit each applicant club by Friday, June 27.

• Applicant clubs will then be invited, following assessment, to present their business and football plans to all 29 members of the Scottish Football League at a Special General Meeting to be held at Hampden Park on Thursday, July 3.

• The 29 SFL clubs will then vote on the day to decide which club has been invited to join the Scottish Football League as a Third Division club with effect from the 2008/2009 season. An announcement will be made immediately following the voting process.