30th March 2026
At the end of the football season, one team will be promoted automatically from the 10-team Scottish Professional Football League 2 (SPFL2). The other promoted team will emerge from play-offs involving the teams finishing in second to fourth places and the second-bottom team of League 1. (The bottom team of League 1 will be relegated automatically).
Prior to last Saturday’s round of fixtures, East Kilbride FC and The Spartans FC stood at the top of League 2 on 56 and 55 points, respectively, with 6 games left to play. The third-placed team (Clyde FC) had 44 points and the fourth-placed (Forfar Athletic FC) 36 points. When the regular season and play-offs have been completed, therefore, it is possible that the second-placed team – which is obviously likely to be either East Kilbride or Spartans – having had the frustration of not going up automatically by a narrow margin, might well be squeezed out of the second promotion place by a side that had finished 20 points or so below them.
Saturday’s match between Spartans and East Kilbride in Edinburgh was therefore of some importance. Whilst both sides would have been aware that a win would not yet have guaranteed promotion, it would have been considered an important psychological staging post in that particular quest. An interesting quirk to the contest was the Spartans had won all the season’s previous three League fixtures between the clubs, including a 6-0 away victory in January, as well as a Scottish Cup tie in the autumn.
Some might consider the clubs as being arrivistes within the SPFL structure: Spartans from 2023-24 and East Kilbride this season. (By contrast, this year’s League 2 also includes Dumbarton FC, which secured its second Scottish Football League title in 1892-93, the year that Clyde joined the competition). However, it is the case that the new arrivals secured their League status on merit by virtue of being the previous season’s champions of the Lowland League and then winning play-off matches against the Highland League winners and the side finishing bottom of League 2.
On Saturday I took the Number 19 bus from the Waverley Steps into the northern part of the city, past the Western General Hospital and Fettes College to Crewe Toll, from where it was a five-minute walk to the Spartans’ home ground at Ainslie Park, aka the Vanloq Community Stadium. (“God bless you” said the cheery young man wearing a “Jesus loves you” t-shirt, as he paused from clearing up some of the litter on the Ferry Road. I hope my smile and wave was an appropriate acknowledgement). The weather in the west of Scotland had been wet and blustery earlier in the day so that, although it had turned to sunshine with a cool breeze in the capital, on arriving at the ground I took one of the few remaining places in the narrow stand that runs along the eastern touchline.
As expected, it was a good, competitive encounter. I thought that East Kilbride had the better of the first half, their passing having a greater fluency and with a consistently threatening outlet on the left hand side through Bobby McLuckie. His counterpart on the Spartans left, Ethan Drysdale, also showed up well with some good close control and dribbling.
Towards the end of the first half, Spartans had looked at their most dangerous from a couple of well-placed in-swinging corner-kicks and it was from one of these, 10 minutes after the break, that they took the lead through a header by their centre-back, Jordan Tapping. (By then I had enjoyed my half-time sustenance of a rather good flapjack, courtesy of the mothers’ and infants’ home-baking stall that was strategically placed at the end of the stand). Tapping was later announced by the MC as the Spartans’ player of the match: a good choice, I thought.
The East Kilbride equaliser came somewhat unexpectedly with 83 minutes on the clock, when Joao Balde was judged to have been fouled in the penalty area. (The Lisbon-born Balde, together with the Spartans’ captain – the Lancastrian James Craigen – were the only non-Scots in the two starting XIs). “That was never a penalty” said the elderly man to my right – the first vocalised opinion he had offered on the game though, judging by his frequent applause of the Spartans’ efforts, he was not exactly a disinterested spectator. I thought that there had been contact between the defender and forward though our different perspectives might have been due to looking into the brightly setting sun, which was facing us above the blocks of flats on the other side of the ground.
The combative John Robertson – East Kilbride’s leading scorer this season – confidently converted the spot-kick before sprinting towards the small but noisy band of travelling support in the smaller stand in the corner of the ground.
The final score of 1-1 meant that it is “as you were” after the two sides – watched on this occasion by over 1300 spectators – had completed their latest battle at the top of the League 2 table. There will no doubt be plenty of drama to come before the automatic promotion place is decided.
For the present, I enjoyed my visit to Ainslie Park, though I did come away with one regret – that I had not purchased a second flapjack to enjoy with my coffee on the train journey back to Glasgow Queen Street.
An Ordinary Spectator 