An Edinburgh Derby brings down the curtain on the first half of the SWPL as season heads into it’s summer recess ahead of the Top 6 split.

Debbi McCulloch’s Spartans make the short trip across the Capital to take on Hutchison Vale as the Ainslie Park side look to continue their six match winning run.

It’ll be the first outing in three weeks for Spartans due to the International break and Cowdenbeath withdrawing from last weekend’s Scottish Cup tie.  

Would the elongated break make for a tougher test as the team finally returns to action?   “I’m not sure it’s tough at all,” noted McCulloch.  “We are all used to breaks between games as it’s a regular occurrence in the Premier League. It would have been great to have a game last Sunday but on the other hand it have us an opportunity to bring the team together for a training session which helps us to be better prepared for this weekend.”

Sunday’s outcomes across the six ties will have no influence on the post-split set up however McCulloch insists her side will be going all out for the win.  “Naturally we want to win on Sunday but we want to win every game and will go into this derby fixture with a winning mentality. We have performed well in the first half of the season and we will be aiming to keep that unbeaten run intact.”

Hutchie Vale find themselves at the wrong end of the table however their two wins have been at home and the trip to Saughton Park promises to be a challenging encounter where Vale Manager Andy Enwood will be keen to close the opening half of the campaign on a high.

For McCulloch, a win on Sunday could propel her side into 2nd or 3rd spot however the Spartans Manager is focussing on getting the job done first and foremost.  “We have always aimed to compete as high up the table as we can so to finish in the top three gives us a good starting block for the second half of the season but we need to perform well on Sunday to deserve another three points.

I watched Hutchie play on Sunday against Riverside in the Scottish Cup and they showed they can certainly score goals if given the opportunity. We will need to work extremely hard when we don’t have the ball and when we do have the ball we will need to creative going forward to break them down.”

The match at Saughton Park kicks-off at 1pm.