The Spartan Army massively upset all the odds to record the best season in club history and reach the Championship playoffs for the first time in 2031. But the challenge now was to build on that improvement and ensure they didn’t suffer a repeat of the relegation in 2029.
The Spartans’ summer began with the board deciding to blow £1.6m on new youth facilities – leaving them with £350k in the bank! That left King Leonidas with no option but to continue to focus on free transfers. He began by signing two familiar faces as right back Jamie Riordan and midfielder Ruari Curnyn, who left for Dundee United and Dundee in 2025 and 2027, rejoined after being released. They were joined by centre backs Ruari Nish and Hugh Binnie, and Leonidas promoted academy products striker Dale Gill, wingers John Scott and Simon Anderson and goalkeeper Ciarán Fairgrieve.
Leonidas stuck with his familiar 4-4-2 approach, which hasn’t changed from last season but Aaron Reid moves across to the target forward role.
Looking To Avoid Second Season Syndrome
The bookies certainly don’t fancy Spartans’ chances of replicating last season’s successes, tipping them to finish last with title odds of 250/1. Kilmarnock are the league favourites at 1/4 followed by Inverness (7/5), relegated Queen’s Park (7/4) and Livingston (11/4).
The season didn’t start well as they continued their struggles against Kilmarnock with a 2-0 defeat. They also failed to score in a more impressive 0-0 with Inverness but eventually got on the scoresheet as striker Morty Tuppen bagged a brace in a wild 3-3 at Hamilton. They backed that up with a first win as Tuppen, captain Laurie Brandon and Reid earned a 3-2 win at home to Alloa before Curnyn scored on his return to nick a 2-2 at Queen’s Park. But Spartans hit whole new levels as Reid and Tuppen both bagged braces in a 5-1 thrashing of Partick.
The good start continued by beating Dunfermline and Livingston but came to a halt with a 4-1 hammering at Inverness. However, they got back on track with their first-ever regular season victory over Kilmarnock as a Scott doubled led a 2-1 win. They were unlucky to only draw 2-2 at leaders Alloa then Tuppen’s late strikes nicked a 3-2 win over Queen’s Park, which moved them just 4 points off the top of the league. But they kept it up and a 3-0 win at winless Hamilton on 30 December took Spartans into the new year sitting on top of the Championship! However, Kilmarnock have a game in hand.
Outside Title Chance?
2032 began with a massive game as Spartans travelled to Kilmarnock. And they made a real statement of intent as winger Kyle Orru and Toppen completed a superb turnaround in a pretty feisty clash. They backed that up by dominating Alloa and winning 3-1 to move 6 points clear, but went to new levels as Reid thumped 4 goals in a 6-3 hammering of Queen’s Park, in which Graeme McGinley became Spartans’ all-time record appearances holder as he surpassed Blair Henderson’s 241 league games.
Brandon scored the only goal at home to Queen’s Park to take Spartans to a remarkable 7 successive victories, which ended with a 1-1 at home to Dunfermline. They also drew 1-1 with Livington but Tuppen and Orru strikes edged a 2-1 success at Livingston to extend their lead to 7 points after 28 games.
That teed up another massive clash as Spartans entertained Kilmarnock in mid-March. The two sides put on a great show, which began with young striker Dale Gill opened the scoring from the penalty spot. The visitors equalised, Reid headed home to restore the lead but Kilmarnock levelled up again just after the break. But Reid was the hero has he tapped home from close range to secure a 3-2 success that moved Spartans 10 points clear on an 18-game unbeaten streak.
Unbeaten Run Sparks Title Fight
Reid was the saviour again as he scored the only goal at home to bottom-side Hamilton while Kilmarnock drew at Livingston. And Spartans drew their game in hand 2-2 at Alloa to go 10 points clear with 5 games remaining. However, the unbeaten streak ended dramatically with a 4-1 hammering at home to Queen’s Park. That left it as very much a 2-way battle with Spartans 7 points clear with 4 games remaining.
Game 1 – Partick (7th, away): Spartans played first on the Friday night and raced into a 2-0 lead inside 5 minutes through Brandon and Tuppen. But an exhausted side squandered the lead and had to settle for a 2-2. The next day, Kilmarnock won 3-0 at Hamilton to close the gap to just 5 points with 3 to play.
Game 2 – Dunfermline (9th, away): Leonidas made a point to go round all his players and lambast their last performance and their recent efforts during the week. And those tense grillings paid off as they responded in style. Orru and Reid scored early on, Tuppen tucked home a penalty and Orru doubled his tally to finish off a 4-1 rout. Kilmarnock beat Alloa 4-2 to keep the gap at 5 points.
Game 3 – Arbroath (8th, home): That meant Spartans’ first chance to reach the Scottish Premiership was in the Friday night game at Airslie Park Stadium against Arbroath. Leonidas told the lads to do it for the fans and his rousing words had the desired result as Brandon slid Orru in for the opener inside 7 minutes. Arbroath swiftly equalised from a corner, Spartans followed suit as a short corner saw Tuppen head home. They immediately gave up the lead but Tuppen quickly restored it as a short free kick was played into him by Scott. The 2nd half was a little calmer until Curnyn decided to chop a guy in half from behind with 13 minutes remaining. Leonidas went massively on the defensive… and it worked as they killed the game off.
Spartans were Champions of the cinch Championship!!
Spartans won the title by 6 points, finishing on 73 points after 20 wins, 13 draws and just 3 defeats. They scored a league-high 75 goals and conceded 51. Tuppen was the league’s top scorer with a new Championship record 24 goals, but Orru was the best player with 12 goals, 10 assists and a league-high 7.36 average rating in 31 games.
Reflecting On Almighty Overachievement
Even King Leonidas wouldn’t have stuck £1 on his Spartans’ 250/1 title odds at the start of the campaign (not that he was allowed to do those kinds of things, anyway). But in a way, he wasn’t that surprised that his team had massively levelled up. Looking at the squad below, the key attributes Leonidas required to ensure the warrior spirit at Spartans had improved significantly with much more yellows and greens on the page. Indeed, the return of Riordan had been critical given he had 9 of the 11 attributes above a 10 and only one player (Kenny, who’s likely to leave in the summer) had determination of below 11.
This season’s key player had been Tuppen, who’d improved dramatically and scored 26 in 42. Reid also impressed again with 18 in 42 followed by Orru (13) and Scott (11), who’d both improved hugely, Brandon (7) and centre back Regan Crabbe (5). The impressive Scott topped the assists chart with 19 followed by Orru (10) and Kevin Hale (6).
Spartans U18s won the U18 Tier 3 for a 3rd successive season led by the competition’s top scorers Kevin Campbell (14) and Kushtrim Krasniqi (11) and top assisters Mark O’Donovan (7) and Harry Handling (6). That potential was boosted by another solid-looking youth intake led by midfielders Peter Kerr and Thomas Harris, winger Tim Warde and goalkeeper Coll Blaikie.
The unexpected success forced the Spartans board to finally turn the club professional, which saw them end the season around £500k in the red. So it was certainly set to be an interesting summer as the financial unknown surrounded the club with the step up to new heights.
It had taken 9 years with one relegation along the way, but The Spartans were a few months away from stepping up to the top tier of Scottish football. Could they mix it with Scotland’s best? And would there be finances available to help Leonidas strengthen his squad? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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