Manager Debbi McCulloch outlines Spartans’ goals for the upcoming campaign

Top-six is the aim for Spartans for the upcoming campaign as the players return after a six-week break.

The Edinburgh side narrowly missed out on the top half last season as they took the battle for sixth place to the final game pre-split. A defeat to Hearts finally condemned the side to the bottom six, however, Spartans continued to battle on and ended the season on an impressive 10-game unbeaten run. Now with the 2023/24 campaign approaching, McCulloch is hopeful that the club can use this end-of-season form to push on and achieve what they just missed out on a few months back.

“We proved ourselves in the bottom six with the last 10 fixtures being unbeaten, that has given us a lot of confidence,” she told the Edinburgh Evening News. “We know from the first half of the season last year that we can beat Hibs, Hearts and Celtic. We are in a strong position and we just need to take that confidence into this season to ensure that we continue to ride that wave. Hopefully, that will see us secure top-six this season and additionally get two good cup runs as well.

“Last season we reached the semi-finals of the league cup and got a bit unlucky with the Scottish Cup, out of 35 teams we ended up with Hibs after the Christmas break. There are some things that our out of our control but there are also some that are in our control. This season we need to value that more than ever, the success of the club is our responsibility, collectively as a group. We take that responsibility very seriously and we will certainly look to do better than we did last season.”

Spartans finished seventh in the 2022/23 season. Credit: Spartans Women

All of the squad are now back in training for preseason after the club had a six-week break. Few have been made to the squad, with McCulloch electing to keep the core of the team in hopes they will kick on and progress even further for the upcoming campaign. Tegan Browning is the only addition so far with only a couple other signings also being eyed up by the management team to finish the transfer window off. Four friendlies are scheduled for Spartans over the next five weeks with each one taking place at Ainslie Park as the squad aims to get fit and match sharp for the upcoming season.

“This is the first proper six-week break that we have had in quite a while,” McCulloch added. “When it was summer football you never really got a long break, and it was always over Christmas and New Year. Just to go away and recover physically and more importantly mentally from what can be an extremely draining 10 months has been good for absolutely everybody and really beneficial. Everybody seems extremely happy to be back, morale seems good. We have a really solid squad this season and one we can build on from last season without making too many changes. That makes life much easier for everybody.”