For Sparta! | Part 7 | Crazy Relegation Fight

The Spartans FC just about managed to stay in the cinch Championship for a 3rd campaign as King Leonidas’ young side finished 8th amid a really tight relegation battle. And it seemed another tough campaign lay in waiting.

The Spartans board yet again decided going professional wasn’t a financially sound move, yet deemed it suitable to spend a ludicrous £1.4m on training facility upgrades – leaving them with just £400k in the bank. That was frustrating and left Leonidas with very little wiggle room if he did manage to find any players that met his attribute demands.

Leonidas decided that it was time for change in the summer of 2028. The club’s record goalscorer Blair Henderson retired, goalkeeper Max Currie decided to leave and they got a new club record sale as centre back Bobby Munro, who had 12 months on his contract, joined Motherwell for £200k and rejoined on loan. But new signings provided optimism as midfielder Laurie Brandon, who hits Leonidas’ need for aggression, concentration, determination, teamwork and workrate, striker Steven Sharp and winger Gary Johnston arrived on free transfers.

Leonidas also opted to switch up the formation slightly to try and address last season’s dreadful defensive record. Brandon dropped in as a defensive midfielder with one of the wingers pushing higher on the left, so it basically remained a 4-4-2.

3rd Season In The Championship

The bookies still have Spartans as massive favourites to get relegated with odds of 150/1 to win cinch Championship. That’s well off the 50/1 of Greenock Morton with Dunfermline at 15/1 and Arbroath at 12/1. Relegated Dundee United are huge title favourites at 1/32 followed by Livingston and Queen’s Park at 7/2 and 9/4.

The new approach got the solid start Leonidas was hoping for as midfielder Callum Burnside’s goal secured a 1-0 win over Greenock Morton. They lost 4-1 at Kilmarnock but delivered another strong home performance to defeat Queen’s Park 3-1 led by striker Laurie Berra’s brace. Another big away loss followed then a draw at home to Arbroath but their best performance yet saw them edge a 3-2 success at Livingston led by winger Ruari Darge’s double.

Despite that strong start, a 6-game winless streak saw Spartans slide to 7th and a 3-0 defeat at Arbroath had Leonidas seriously worried. So he drastically switched up the tactical approach that the fans were beginning to criticise, moving to a hopefully more solid 3-4-3. That got its first outing at home to 5th-place Inverness and showed signs of promise despite a 1-0 loss to a dubious penalty that saw the referee bear the wrath of Leonidas. But a 3-0 loss at Dunfermline saw Spartans hit the bottom of the Championship.

They scrambled off it with a much-needed 3-2 win at home to Hamilton thanks to Berra’s brace, which snapped a 10-game winless streak in which they’d conceded 25 goals. Next time out they got battered 3-0 at home by Dundee United, who have international players like Jovane Cabral, then only lost 4-3 at Kilmarnock. However, two big home games just after Christmas saw right back Barrie Allum nick a 1-0 win over Greenock Morton then Berra’s penalty earned a draw with Queen’s Park. That lifted Spartans to 7th but only 3 points off the bottom of the league going into the new year.

Relegation Looming?

However, that flurry of points hadn’t moved Spartans any further away from the relegation zone. Indeed, a 5-1 hammering by Livingston left Spartans down in 9th after 31 games, just 1 point off the bottom of the league but only 6 points off 5th-place Hamilton. So Spartans found themselves in the middle of another tight relegation fight and with a tricky set of fixtures remaining.

Game 1 – Arbroath (6th, away): Spartans didn’t begin the run-in well, getting dominated by 18 shots to 5 and losing 2-1, as Darge’s late consolation made the game look far closer than it was. Their relegation rivals also lost, leaving the bottom four still separated by 4 points with 4 games remaining, while Arbroath and Hamilton were realistically safe.

Game 2 – Inverness (4th, home): A tricky task followed and so it proved as Inverness waltzed to a 3-0 win at Ainslie Park Stadium. The other three sides down the bottom all lost again so the status quo remained.

Game 3 – Dunfermline (7th, away): Leonidas went back to what he knew for a huge trip to Dunfermline, which was realistically their only chance at getting a point. And they did! A pretty lively game saw the two sides share 22 shots, one of which was Berra missing a penalty after 19 minutes. But as it looked to be drifting to a 0-0, Reid stepped up to tap home Darge’s low cross while goalkeeper Mason Munn was man of the match with an incredible 10 saves. However, that changed nothing as Queen’s Park and Greenock Morton also won 1-0 at Hamilton and Arbroath.

Game 4 – Hamilton (6th, home): That win gave the lads confidence going into a must-win home game. And they delivered again as winger Graeme McGinley’s second-half brace sealed a vital 2-0 victory. Dunfermline lost so Spartans closed the gap on them and Hamilton to 3 points, but Greenock Morton won again. That left the bottom five teams separated by 2 points going into the final day while any of the bottom six sides could go into the relegation playoff!

Game 5 – Dundee United (3rd, home): But Spartans faced a tough task against a strong Dundee United side while Greenock Morton went to Dunfermline, Hamilton visited 2nd-place Livingston and Arbroath were at home to Queen’s Park.

Spartans started pretty well, forcing the keeper into two good saves in the first half hour. A lax pass out of defence gave United a chance on the verge of half time, but Munn made a superb one-on-one stop to take them into the break at 0-0. Elsewhere, Arbroath were 2-1 up on Queen’s Park, Dunfermline were winning 1-0 and Hamilton were losing 1-0. So as it stood, Spartans would again be safe in 8th.

But keeping this United side out was always going to be tough, and so it proved as they scored from a lucky rebound on 52 minutes. Leonidas threw everything at it, but his players didn’t react and the game drifted to a 1-0 loss.

That meant Spartans’ destiny was completely out of their own hands. Hamilton drew 1-1 at Livingston and Arbroath and Queen’s Park drew 2-2. So if Spartans had managed to beat Dundee United… they would have finished 6th! However, the big game was the Greenock Morton one. They’d been losing at half time but equalised on 50 minutes and, disappointingly, Dunfermline fell apart to somehow lose 4-1 to the bottom side. And that meant Spartans slumped to 10th place and were relegated to League 1.

A mad campaign saw Spartans relegated with 35 points, only 4 points behind 5th-place Arbroath. They won 9 games, drew 8 and lost 19, only scoring 38 and conceding 65. So relegation was very much deserved.

This season’s top player had been Reid, who scored 20 in 43 and was the only regular starter to get an average rating over 7 (7.04). Berra, who’s supposedly the best player at the club, scored 16 in 41 but behind the strikers no player scored more than 4, which was a serious concern. Assist-wise, Johnston led the way with 16 in 40 but no other player contributed more than 5.

There didn’t appear to be any chance of Leonidas being sacked in the wake of demotion to League 1, given The Spartans board handed him a new 2-year contract two weeks before the end of the season. But a step down could well be a blessing in disguise for his army of young players. And that army was bolstered by another solid youth intake that included four players with 5-star potential, two with 4.5-star potential and three with 4-star potential. That’s compared to 4.5-star best player Berra, who’s the only player at the club considered to have Championship quality. So don’t get too excited about the likes of striker Dale Gill, left backs Joe Graham and Tony Reid, midfielder Kenny Wilson and goalkeeper Yordan Kotsinov!

Could these young charges help King Leonidas return to the Championship next season? Or would they need to consolidate their position back in League 1? Join us next Wednesday to find out!