Spartans edged out at Pinkie

The victory takes Musselburgh Windsor off the foot of the table as they swapped places with their newly-promoted opponents. Jordan Killign proved integral to Windsor’s victory, as he set up a goal and scored another in the first half. Josh King’s two goals for Spartans, however, were not enough to salvage a point. Windsor opened the scoring after 14 minutes. Killign played a short pass towards striker Liam Mathew who arrowed his shot into the bottom left corner from the edge of the penalty area. The lead was doubled after 34 minutes when Michael Gray’s through ball put Killign one-on-one with Spartans goalkeeper Jack Morton. His shot went into the right of the net.

Morton pulled off a great save after 44 minutes when Nicolas Tonner’s close-range header looked destined for the goal, after Ryan Hutchison’s delivery from the right corner flag.

Spartans pulled a goal back ten minutes later, from a short-corner routine. Scott Easton found Josh King in the left of the area, and he powered the ball past Windsor goalkeeper Robbie Costello into the bottom left corner of the goal.

They should have equalised two minutes later when Rhys Surgeon tripped Easton inside the penalty area. Craig Smith took the penalty but Costello saved his shot.

Windsor sealed the points after 63 minutes when Robbie Menzies’ long-range effort bounced into the bottom left corner of the net.

Spartans pulled another back with two minutes remaining. A through ball from Joe Newman found King who placed the ball past Costello from the left side of the penalty area.

Spartans FC Reds coach, Duncan King, said: “They were definitely the better team in the first half and we probably edged it in the second, but I think they were much hungrier than us to get the result. We haven’t played for five weeks and I think that showed. We did well to get ourselves back into the game and if we scored the penalty who knows what might have happened. We want to finish above the bottom three or four in the division. It’s a big step up after being promoted from the second division. If we finish near mid-table we’ll be happy.”

Musselburgh Windsor coach, David Blair, said: “The match went very well. We started off well and pressed well. Every player was up for it and our passing was very good, especially in the midfield. We held the ball up well and we showed a good fighting spirit. It was a very good first goal from Liam Mathew and the whole 11 worked their socks off.

“The second and third goals were from free-kicks which were also good goals. We fell out the game a bit in the middle, but we came back fighting so I’m very happy to get the result. We gave a silly goal away in the last minute due to a lack of concentration which could have cost us but we managed to hold on to the victory.

“We want to get further up the table. We started slow and conceded some silly goals in some games which cost us dearly. We’ve been doing really well in the cups this season but not so well in the league so hopefully we’ve turned the corner. We’ve had some bad results which we really should have tucked away, and a few matches where we were the better team but not capitalised on it. We can still get some silverware in the cups.”

Musselburgh Windsor: Robbie Costello, Nicolas Tonner, Stuart Talac, Andrew Morris, Ryan Hutchison, Rhys Surgeon, Michael Gray, Liam Mathew, Shane Barnard, Murray Igoe, Jordan Killign, Andrew McNeill, Jack Friery, Robbie Menzies, Cameron Menzies, Scott Walker.

Spartans FC Reds: Jack Morton, Chris Pringle, Connor Agate, Alex Lamb, Calum Paton, Josh King, Joe Newman, Scott Easton, Jake Barclay, Craig Smith, Conal Henderson, Aaron Heinemeier, Fergus Clelland, Ryan Langmuir.