Match Report

A chaotic last ten minutes saw Annan Athletic concede four late goals to The Spartans at Galabank, as the away side won 4-2 in the League Two season opener.

Annan entered the clash off a tough League Cup draw, failing to qualify out of Group D with Ross County and Dundee FC making it through. Spartans also failed to qualify out their group, finishing last.

Spartans took kick off, yet it was Annan who would begin om the front foot as Wullie Gibson and Josh Dixon would let the first two shots of the game fly, however neither would trouble Spartans keeper Patrick Martin.

The Spartans would be next to have an effort on goal when Marc McNulty drew a freekick on the edge of the box. Skipper James Craigen would step up to take it and force Charlie Albinson to get down at the near post and make the save.

Charlie Maxwell would open the scoring for Annan in the 20th minute with a beautiful strike. Cameron Cooper would slide Maxwell in towards goal, who chopped inside onto his right, leaving Ayrton Sonkur for dead, and lift the ball over Martin into the top right corner to make it 1-0.

The game was slowly turning into a battle after the half hour mark, with Gibson spurring his team on from the middle of the park making two meaty challenges.

Albinson was called into action again when Spartans got some joy down the left-hand side which left him one on one with McNulty. Despite the neat play from Spartans, Albinson made himself big and made another important stop.

Half Time: Annan Athletic 1 The Spartans 0

It was a great start to the second half for the hosts, when the tireless Maxwell, who was leading the line for the afternoon, hounded the Spartans back four on the 49th minute, and nicked the ball off David McKay. Maxwell would tap the ball round the keeper and finish into an open net to make it 2-0 to Annan.

Keith Watson would make two important back-to-back blocks on 55 minutes, both from McNulty shots to retain Annan’s clean sheet for the time being.

Maxwell had a chance to snatch his hattrick just minutes later when Paul Smith would send him goalwards after link up play down the right, however Martin would come across at the near post and force it out for a corner. Aidan Smith would latch onto the cross from said corner and head goalwards, but his header would go over the bar.

Watson was to be involved again just after the half hour mark, when an attempted clearance was deflected and looped towards Annan’s goal, in which Albinson had to tip over the bar.

Annan were still clinging onto their two-goal lead, until the 83rd minute when Spartans pulled one back through Brogan Walls, who got on the end of a cutback inside the box to fire into the roof of the net to make it 2-1.

It wasn’t long before Spartans equalled the scoring just minutes later. Craigen stepped up to take another freekick, and this time he fired it into the right-side netting from the left-hand side making it 2-2.

Things went from bad to worse for Annan when they gave away a late penalty 89th minute. McNulty stepped up to take it, sending Albinson the wrong way and giving the visitors the lead late on.

With near enough the last kick of the game McNulty doubled his tally for Spartans, taking advantage of the lack of men back for Annan while they were pushing for an equaliser. He was played in behind and struck the ball on the half volley into the bottom left corner, making it 4-2 and sealing the deal for Spartans.