Edinburgh University aim to test Spartans to the limit

The students have already inflicted defeat upon challengers East Kilbride and East Stirlingshire this term and now Ogunro’s men are looking to make it a hat-trick when they visit Capital rivals Spartans tonight.

There are just nine points separating league leaders Kilby from fourth-placed Spartans, with East Stirlingshire and BSC Glasgow sandwiched in between. However, Dougie Samuel’s side do have games in hand on the teams above them.

Tonight’s hosts lost to East Kilbride six days ago while the Uni fought from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Dalbeattie Star.

And, despite expecting Spartans to come out with all guns blazing, Ogunro is quietly  confident.

“There isn’t a team in this league that you can expect to get results against if you don’t perform for 90 minutes and that goes for Hawick at the bottom all the way up to East Kilbride at the top,” he said.

“We’ve shown that we can beat the top teams in this league already this season and won so we’ve got a chance tonight, definitely.

“I think we can compete against Spartans. I don’t think we can expect a backlash from last week but they’ll definitely want to redress the balance if they didn’t perform as well as they should have done.

“My players aren’t daft. The bigger the game the more they are up for it and Spartans fall into that category. It’s a local derby where both sides know what each other are about.

“Spartans have got four games in hand over East Kilbride but the reality is that you want the points in the bag. There is pressure on them, for sure so they’ll be doing everything they can to get the win, as we will be.

“We underperformed for at least half of the game against Dalbeattie and we let the players know that.

“Some parts of it weren’t very good at all but if you’re 2-0 down and you come away with a point then that’s something to build on.”

Meanwhile, Civil Service Strollers will hope to edge closer to the top half of the table when they entertain Gala Fairydean Rovers at Christie Gillies Park tomorrow.

Strollers, currently tenth, are just four points shy of eighth-placed Gretna 2008.

Elsewhere, Whitehill Welfare could do Spartans a huge  favour when they travel to South Lanarkshire to play hosts East Kilbride.