Van Loq Community Stadium
Ainslie Park
92 Pilton Drive
Edinburgh
EH5 2HF
Ground Number: 1527
Sunday 15th March 2025
Spartans WFC 1-0 Boroughmuir Thistle
SWPL 2
SPARTANS FC - A BRIEF HISTORY
THE SPARTANS were established in 1951 by ex-players of Edinburgh University, the original intention being that the squad would consist exclusively of the university's graduates. However, the club is now open to players of any background. They played in local and college leagues up until 1980, when they joined the East of Scotland League. Two 3rd place finishes were achieved before a title win in 1985. When the league was expanded in 1987, the Spartans would remain in the top tier, winning the title on seven more occasions. They joined the newly established Lowland League in 2013, which was formed along with the Highland League to attempt to break into the SPL. They were highly successful here, winning the title on three occasions. The SPL were not going to give up a place easily, though, and it would take them until the second title to even earn a playoff place. In 2018, they lost to the Highland League champions Cove Rangers over two legs. They put that right in 2023, beating Brechin City and Albion Rovers in playoff games to reach the SPL League 2. They've been there ever since, always finishing in the top half.
The Women's team was established in 1985, the club was known as Hailes United, Edinburgh Star, Tynecastle, Bonnyrigg Rose and Whitehill Welfare over the first twenty years of its existence. While operating as Whitehill Welfare, the club was promoted to the Scottish Women's Premier League in 2004. After two seasons as Edinburgh Ladies in 2006–07 and 2007–08, the club was taken over by Spartans in 2008 and adopted their current name. Having won the Scottish Women's Premier League Cup as Edinburgh Ladies in 2006–07, Spartans lost a further five League Cup finals in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 as well as the final of the 2014 Scottish Women's Cup, all by heavy margins and at the hands of Glasgow City on four of the six occasions. They finished as Premier League runners-up behind Glasgow City in 2008–09 and 2011. The club's 21-year spell in the top division ended in the 2024–25 season when they finished 10th of 12 teams, with three relegated as the league was restructured.
MY VISIT
From our game at Kilmarnock, it was a brisk 45-minute walk to the room with Kilmarnock fans in a jubilant mood. At the hotel, Richard and I were disappointed to see that the garage was not selling booze due to licensing laws, but to be honest, it'll do me no harm. No such rules for porkers, though, as Colin, whose diet is not the greatest to say the least, got a big bag of food from McDonald's. Everyone was back by 11, but my blog photos were painfully slow to upload, even after paying extra for fast WiFi. Around half an hour to upload photos that usually take a couple of minutes was frustrating. Eventually, I got everything uploaded at around 11.30 and went to bed. It was another short night's sleep, although, as usual, I felt fine. I awoke around 5 to the good news that we'd got a full refund for the difficult trip up on Sunday.
We left our hotel at 8.30 and walked the 40 minutes to Kilmarnock. The streets were rubbish-strewn, as the council were not great at emptying the bins. We stopped at Greggs for a scotch pie and a bottle of Irn Bru before getting to the bus station. There was a huge queue for the bus, owing to the lack of trains. It took a while to get on as the driver had not allowed time to load everyone. As a result, we were ten minutes late leaving, making our train connection dicey. That turned out to be the case, and we were half an hour behind. It wasn't a disaster as I'd factored in a delay, knowing how unreliable public transport had been recently. We hung around in the station for 25 minutes with the announcement of which platform we needed to take, which was taking forever. It was eventually announced six minutes before departure, leading to a massive rush on a busy train. We got to Edinburgh Waverley, and power walked the 50 minutes to the ground via a shop for a drink. We were there 10 minutes before kickoff, paying £8 to get in. I also got a superb Doner Kebab pie for £3.50, not quite Killie pie standards but close. And far better than the one at Greenock Morton on Friday. That said, the second one wasn't nearly as good at halftime, probably due to the extra time in the hot cabinet.
Spartans WFC were 2nd in the SWPL 2, some distance behind leaders Kilmarnock. They had won their last three, thumping East Fife 5-0 in their last game. Boroughmuir Thistle were in good form too, but had lost 2-0 to Dundee United in their last game. It was a drab first half; the Spartans were the better side, and this continued in the second half. It was a truly terrible game, settled in the last minute by a penalty for the hosts scored by Natalie Bandura. We had seen Everton fan and hopper Sean at the game; he had enjoyed a productive weekend of hopping, getting in plenty of games and being equally unimpressed with this one.
THE GROUND
AINSLIE PARK is a smart and functional stadium without much character. There are two seated stands which hold around 600 between them, according to official figures. The rest of the ground is open hard standing. The bar, merchandise and food all offer a reasonable range at reasonable prices. There is plenty of parking and the ground is less than an hour's walk from either Haymarket or Waverley stations. Buses will probably take 20 minutes off the journey time.
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