Spartans skipper Michael Herd on why winning a cup is so important for the club

SPARTANS captain Michael Herd has urged his team-mates to finish a disappointing domestic campaign on a positive note by lifting some silverware.

Michael Herd is desperate to win some silverware for Spartans boss Dougie Samuel

Despite conceding their defence of the title, the Capital outfit are still on the trophy hunt this season with a Football Nation Cup semi-final against Penicuik Athletic looming large next month.

Dougie Samuel’s side welcome Gala Fairydean Rovers to Ainslie Park on league duty tonight fresh off the back of recording their biggest win on the road this term against Edusport (5-0) last Saturday.

Skipper Herd, 29, one of five separate goalscorers at Galabank, believes that claiming maximum points from their next four fixtures could act as the perfect confidence-booster ahead of their Cup showdown with East of Scotland league high-flyers Cuikie.

“We’ve been playing really well in recent weeks, but lady luck has just eluded us at times,” stated the hard-tackling midfielder, pictured below.

“You’re always in for a tough game against Edusport, but we performed excellently, and it was great to make the long journey back with three points, five goals and a clean sheet in the bag. We haven’t perhaps defended our title as well as we could have this season, but we’ve still got a lot to play for and hopefully we can finish strongly.

“The semi-final against Penicuik is one the boys are all really looking forward to in a few weeks’ time, so this next run of fixtures will be perfect preparation in the lead up to such a big game. Our aim is always to win trophies here, so it would be great to end up with some silverware to show for our efforts this term, but we know that is easier said than done.

“We’ll need to make sure we cut out any silly individual mistakes because that’s cost us on several occasions this season.”

Gala have endured a tough run of games, suffering three straight defeats, albeit against the current top three teams in the division – East Kilbride, BSC Glasgow and Kelty Hearts.

The Borderers occupy a mid-table berth and, under the stewardship of Dean Shanks, will be eager to return to winning ways as soon as possible.

“It will be another difficult game for us,” Herd added. “Dean has built a decent squad of players and they beat us 3-1 the last time we played them back in October.

“We still want to finish as high up the table as possible but I’m sure Dougie (Samuel) will continue to give some of the under-20s a chance to impress and give them more experience of playing at this level.

“Spartans are a club that have always done well at promoting youth and we’ve now got guys like Jamie Dishington and Adam Corbett who have worked their way up through the age groups and are established first-team players.

“They’ve set a good example and hopefully the club can continue to produce quality players like them as it can only be good for Spartans in the long run.

“Murray Hand, who captains the 20s, is another who has been given plenty of opportunities to showcase his talents, so it’s really good to see these boys progressing well.”

Edinburgh University are also in action this weekend when they visit runaway leaders East Kilbride at K-Park. Dorian Ogunro’s students travel west buoyed after holding high-flying BSC to a 2-2 draw last Saturday.

Bottom side Whitehill Welfare will be desperate to boost their faint survival hopes when Ian Little’s men take on Kelty Hearts in Fife.

Civil Service Strollers will look to do the struggling Rosewell club a favour by beating second-bottom Dalbeattie Star at Islecroft.