Spartans manager Debbi McCulloch full of praise for international duo ahead of Hamilton clash

Spartans manager Debbi McCulloch insists her club aims to “give opportunities to the best young players in Scotland” in wake of Hannah Jordan and Amelie Birse’s Scotland Under-19s call up.

The duo are set to take join the international squad later this month as they take part in the Pinatar Youth Cup. The tournament takes place in Spain alongside a warm-weather training camp. Pauline Hamill’s side will immediately go into the semi-finals facing Hungary on February 17th. McCulloch is full of praise for the duo after receiving the news.

“It's great”, she told the Edinburgh Evening News. “It's always fantastic for the club for us to get that recognition and the players themselves. Our ethos is to give opportunities to the best young players in Scotland. Provide them with an environment to develop and progress on and off the pitch. Hannah Jordan and Amelie Birse are certainly doing that. They are two players who are working extremely hard and fully committed to their football journey and career. Hopefully, they will perform well whilst they are away with the Under 19’s.”

The pair will be joined by fellow Hibs players Rosie Livingstone and Eilidh Adams as well as Hearts’ Aimee Anderson and Lisa Rodgers. In the five-day tournament, Scotland will be competing against Hungary, Sweden and Czech Republic to lift the trophy.

Hannah Jordan scored in Spartans 2-1 win over Hibs last month. Picture: Mark Brown / Spartans Women

This Sunday, Spartans face another important game in their bid to reach the top six. They travel to New Douglas Park to take on Hamilton. Earlier in the season, the Accies got the upper hand on the Edinburgh side beating them 2-1 at Ainslie Park. However, the opposition are still struggling towards the end of the table, sitting second from bottom. Spartans will be looking to rectify that result on Sunday, knowing that a win could lift them into the top six.

“It’s a big game for us when you look at the other team's fixtures,” McCulloch explained. “We were extremely disappointed to lose three points to Hamilton at home earlier on in the season. We want to put that right; we know where three points could potentially take us on Sunday. It’s a big game for both teams. We want to try and increase the gap on the teams that are below us and Hamilton will be wanting to close that gap.

“We need to make sure we turn up and put in a strong performance on Sunday, nothing less will be good enough. Hamilton are a difficult team to break down, it’s a big pitch; that’ll suit us. Again, we need to perform and our performance on Sunday looking back wasn’t bad. We played really well in spells; we just need to take that into the game and build on it.

“It would be good [to win]. We have Celtic next Wednesday as well. We know we can match and beat them. We have to take every single game one at a time. The spot for fifth and sixth is still really tight, there are still six games to play [before the split]. We just have to take a fixture at a time and be positive in our approach, try and take as many points as well can. We can’t control anything else around us, we just need to focus on us.”