■ Bradley Laing knocks the ball past Gregor Amos to give Spartans an early lead at Arboretum

Spartans produced a wonderful team performance to deservedly knock last year's beaten finalists, Hutchison Vale, out of the South East Region Cup at a sunny but cold Arboretum Road.

Driven on by a stirring midfield, led by captain Robbie Shepherdson, the home side produced wave after wave of attacks and scored three good goals. Hutchison Vale showed some lovely passing all over the pitch but were largely ineffective in the final third and were undone by a team who simply wanted to win this game more.

Jamie Collins, who had an excellent game, scored a thunderbolt with 8 minutes remaining to set up a tense finale but Elliot Mitchell put the game out of sight for Spartans with just 2 minutes left when he steered home a third.

The pitch was bathed in winter sunshine but a bitterly cold wind was blowing from the west and with underfoot conditions "sticky" there was some concern that it might spoil this game between these two sides from the U14 top division.

Any concerns we had were blown away within 2 minutes of the start of the match however when Spartans stormed into an early lead. An early foray towards the Hutchison Vale goal resulted in a corner on the right. Robbie Shepherdson sent the ball into the heart of the box where it was steered onwards by Peter Reilly. And it was Bradley Laing that reacted quickest to knock the ball home from 4 yards.

All the early play was with the home side and they had another chance on 10 minutes. Brilliant midfield play by Laing sent Ross Wilcox free on the left and his cross was met in the box by Elliot Mitchell 's head but his effort went just wide.

But Hutchison Vale were showing some fantastic close interplay passing and they had their first chance of the match on 14 minutes when they countered decisively from a Spartans corner. Three passes later and Jamie Collins found himself homing in on goal on the right hand side. And just as the big attacker was about to pull the trigger, Gordon Aitken made a decisive last ditch tackle to thwart him. Aitken was hurt in the tackle and had to leave the pitch and eventually the ground early.

Collins had another opportunity on 23 minutes but this time Keiran Davidson threw himself to his right to deny the Hutchison Vale forward.

Vale had suddenly come into this game after a dominant start by Spartans. Rob Dent was showing some lovely poise on the ball but his team-mates were all too often slow to give him options for a pass and as a result his good work often failed to deliver an end product. But for all Vale's good passing play they didn't really threaten with any consistency. Ruaridh Smith and Sean Davidson were commanding at the back for Spartans and Keiran Davidson was always comfortable between the sticks.

Half Time 1-0

Two minutes after the break and Spartans were once again gunning for the Vale goal. Great wall passing between Elliot Mitchell and Jack Sandilands saw the latter's goalbound effort cannon back off the rear of the goalkeeper's head and bounced away to the sanctuary of a corner.

Sandilands was in the thick of things again on 48 minutes when Spartans almost scored a goal that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Camp Nou!

Captain and midfield dynamo Robbie Shepherdson drove things on from midfield before releasing a brilliant ball out to Ross Wilcox. His first time pass released Sandilands and he skipped the ball over the advancing Gregor Amos but could only watch as the goal bound effort was cleared off the line for a throw in.

From the resultant throw Spartans went two up. The ball wasn't cleared properly and it fell to the feet of Jack Sandilands who cleverly steered it into the bottom right hand corner of the net to spark wild celebrations amongst the Spartans players.
 

The home side had another chance on the hour mark when Shepherdson, who was now having a fantastic game in the middle of the pitch, sent in a great ball to Jesper Price but he couldn't quite convert the opportunity.

Spartans were made to pay for that miss when Hutchison Vale gave themselves a lifeline just a moment later. Vale's best player on the day, Jamie Collins, collected the ball in the middle of the Spartans half before evading several challenges as he worked himself an opening on the edge of the box.

And when the space finally arrived he sent an unstoppable shot high over the head of Keiran Davidson to set up a nervous final 8 minutes.

But that was to be Hutchie's last real chance of this game and it was Spartans who had opportunities to widen their margin of victory. Ross Wilcox almost killed the game on 66 minutes when he was again released by Robbie Shepherdson but his lob shot from the left channel just missed the juncture between bar and post.

With two minutes left on the clock Spartans got a third and decisive goal. Ross Wilcox sent the ball into the box from the left hand side. Vale couldn't clear their lines and the ball fell to the grateful feet of Elliott Mitchell. He steadied himself before despatching it calmly past Amos from 12 yards to secure Spartans' place in the quarter final.