Spartans' hopes of claiming second place suffer blow

Scott Maxwell came closest to scoring for Spartans

Spartans headed to Broadwood looking to close the gap on East Stirlingshire. Dougie Samuel added new loan signing Shaun Turnbull to the bench following the defender’s move from neighbours Civil Service Strollers.

The hosts took the lead in the tenth minute. Broadfoot collected the ball midway inside the Spartans half and launch a speculative lob effort that caught Blair Carswell off his line. The backtracking keeper was unable to make enough ground to prevent the strike nestling in the back of the net.

Scott Maxwell was close to converting a header from a decent deadball delivery from Jack Beesley as Spartans looked to reply. The visitors finally had the ball in the net as the first half edged towards the interval, unfortunately for Blair Tolmie, he was adjudged to have impeded Fahey as the two collided in an aerial clash.

Maxwell then unleashed a rasper from the edge of the box, leaving the Cumbernauld crossbar wobbling.

Turnbull made his debut after the restart, replacing Tolmie, who had suffered a broken nose.

With 20 minutes left on the clock, Spartans’ task got decidedly harder when McFarlane doubled Cumbernauld’s lead. A shot from Stephen O’Neil was blocked by Mikey Herd on the edge of the Spartans penalty area. The ball fell into the path of McFarlane, who squeezed the ball home inside Blair Carswell’s post.

Youngster Jonny Grotlin came off the bench and his pace proved a challenge for the Colts defence. His through ball found Jack Hay, who was denied when Fahey raced off his line to deny the substitute striker. Hay had one final effort to set up a grandstand finish but his header narrowly cleared the bar.

Cumbernauld Colts: Fahey, Fergus, McFarlane, Marshall, Ward, Pirrie (Lachlan), O’Neil, Murray, Brown, Broadfoot, Sheridan. Subs: McKenzie, Black, Ballantyne, Milne, Byrne, Purvis.

Spartans: Carswell, Herd, Stevenson, Tolmie (Turnbull), Townsley, Comrie (Hay), Beesley (Grotlin), Greenhill, Allum, Maxwell, Brown. Subs: Dishington, Saunderson, Gilpin).