With captain Gavin Hepworth missing, as well as Ross Mitchell, Michael Anderson, Graeme Ramage, Philip Speedie, Gerard Maguire, Fraser Lang, David Wyper and Davie Tonner, things only seemed to get worse in the opening two minutes when Alan Easton was forced off with an injury to his arm after coming out second best in a challenge.
As expected, the home side took the initiative, and it wasn't long before they opened the scoring, with a young striker coolly beating Graeme Farmer when sent clear by a through ball. They doubled their lead shortly afterwards when the referee had seemed to have given offside against a Sparta forward before changing his mind and awarding a goal, much to the disbelief of the Corner players.
Just before the interval, Tony O'Neill scored a crucial goal to give the Corner hope when he neatly placed the ball in the goalkeepers right-hand corner from the edge of the area.
There was almost an equaliser at the start of the second period but Joseph Lynas was magnificently denied by a great double-save from the 'keeper. Instead, it was Sparta who doubled their lead as Farmer parried a header, only for a striker to nip in past the static FPC defence and prod the ball home.
Manager Fraser then pulled out his trump card. He introduced himself into the action. With his first touch, he won possesion in midfield before spraying a magnificent pass forward to release Dave Hendry to score his first goal since his comeback from injury.
With the game back in the balance, the referee caused more controversy by awarding the home side a penalty after a striker took a tumble from a challenge by Cunningham, much to the frustration of player-manager David Fraser, who was booked for his protests.
Just a few minutes later, Fraser was in the middle of the action yet again as managed to get onto the end of a cross from Joseph Lynas to smash home an unstoppable left-foot volley into the corner of the net. The wind was now in the Corner sails, and they got the deserved equaliser two minutes from the end, with Fraser again pulling the strings in the midfield. His pass sent top-scorer Joseph Lynas clear on the goalkeeper and he made no mistake from twelve yards.
Just a few minutes later, Fraser was in the middle of the action yet again as managed to get onto the end of a cross from Joseph Lynas to smash home an unstoppable left-foot volley into the corner of the net. The wind was now in the Corner sails, and they got the deserved equaliser two minutes from the end, with Fraser again pulling the strings in the midfield. His pass sent top-scorer Joseph Lynas clear on the goalkeeper and he made no mistake from twelve yards.
The draw was a fair result in the end and, given the list of absentees, a good one for FirParkCorner as they refuse to give up in their quest for silverwear.
All the season's results and reports here.