Spartans are in "quicksand" claims manager

The Edinburgh side had aspirations of a top-six finish this season and looked more than capable of reaching this aspiration in the build-up to the new campaign. In the 2022/23 campaign, Spartans went on a 10-game unbeaten run at the end of the season, winning nine in the process. However, this season has seen no such fortune. 

The club sit 10th in the SWPL1, with eight points from 14 games and are without a victory at Ainslie Park. On Sunday, McCulloch’s side surrendered another lead as local rivals Hibs came back to beat the hosts 4-1. It was the fifth time this season that Spartans have led in a game and not seen out the victory, a trend that has cost them 11 points so far. This has resulted in the side now hovering two points above the relegation play-offs as the winter break approaches. 

“We need people to lead, we need people to stand up and not shy away,” McCulloch told the Edinburgh Evening News. “Hard times can make people tougher but you need people willing to push through that barrier and not stay in the mud. Right now it feels like we are in quicksand and nobody is pulling people out of it. That’s my job, that’s my responsibility, but I’ve asked the players to help with that a wee bit more and I’ve got no doubt that they will.”

While questionable decisions have gone against Spartans all season, it was rather basic mistakes that saw the side defeated on Sunday. Three of Hibs’ goals came from corners which helped to put the game out of sight by the 65th minute. This was no doubt to the annoyance of McCulloch who watched on from the bench. 

“They were all unavoidable,” she exclaimed. “Two of them, we had the ball up their end of the park and we ended up giving a corner away. It was clearly a tactic of theirs and they wanted us to give away corners. The in-swinger really caused us issues, the outswinger didn’t. When they are crowding your goal line like that, you need your goalkeeper to be dominant, you need your markers to be jumping and winning the first and second balls. We didn’t do that.”

With the international break now in play, Spartans will have to wait until December for another chance to rectify their form. An away trip to high-flying Celtic is then followed up by a showdown against 11th-place Montrose at Ainslie Park. With Spartans already finding success against the Gable Endies with a 2-0 win, they are more than capable of doing it again.