Spartans boss Debbi McCulloch prepares for ‘chess game’ against Edinburgh rivals Hearts

Spartans and Hearts both go into the fixture with one of the best defensive records in the division with manager Debbi McCulloch likening the fixture to a ‘game of chess’.

The top six hangs in the balance for McCulloch’s side as they face their last fixture before the league splits. Knowing anything less than a win will do, they travel to the Oriam, tasked with breaking down a fourth-place Hearts side who have only conceded 19 goals in 21 games. However, Spartans have an impressive record against their opposition, beating them in their home fixture as well as knocking Eva Olid’s side out of the SWPL Cup.

“The last game [against Hearts] was like chess, one piece moves, another piece moved, and it kind of cancelled it out a wee bit”, McCulloch told the Edinburgh Evening News. “It will be a close game. We have players that can hurt them, they have good players that can hurt us. However, fundamentally both teams have a strong defensive structure throughout their team and work extremely hard out of possession. We just need to make sure that we did two things, we work hard to get them out of possession and that we play out-play them in possession.”

Spartans come into the game on a strong run of form and have won four of their last seven games. This includes a 2-0 win away to Glasgow Women as well as a professional 1-0 win at home to Dundee United. Last time out, the side put in a brilliant performance against SWPL champions Rangers where they held the Glaswegians for the majority of the game before going on to lose 1-0.

Debbi McCulloh's side currently sit eighth in the SWPL1. Picture: Mark Brown

“We can build on our defensive performance against Rangers and utilize our attacking performances against Glasgow Women and Dundee United”, McCulloch added. “Hopefully, we'll have the perfect blend to come up against a strong and well-organised Hearts team that we know will be extremely difficult to break down, but they will also bring their own threats. So yeah, our focus is very much on us and our style of play in how we approach the game. We've been working hard to this week, even though it's been absolutely freezing in training.”

Preparation for the game hasn’t been ideal however as temperatures continue to drop all over the country. However, McCulloch believes the drastic changes in the UK weather has helped to train the team to be adapted in all conditions thrown at them.

“If COVID taught us one thing, in sport, you've got to be extremely flexible and adaptable”, McCulloch stated. “We're really lucky here that we have two full-size pitches and sometimes, one can be okay, another one can’t, but you've always got that other one as a backup. You're not putting all your eggs in one basket. However, again, the temperatures dramatically drops this week in comparison to probably last month. However, we've got to be able to play football in all types of conditions and be able to adapt to that were necessary.”