Ayr United babes battle well

Apr 16 2008 Ayrshire Post

AYR United Football Academy under 19s turned in an encouraging display despite losing 3-1 to Hamilton Accies in the SFL Youth League Cup.

Trailing 1-0 at the break, United took the game to the visitors in the second half at Somerset Park on Sunday.

And they scored a deserved equaliser when Steph McMillan latched onto a through ball from Stuart Bell and slammed it into the corner of the net.

At this point, Ayr had Accies on the rack but a couple of enforced changes showed the lack of depth in the squad and Accies scored two late goals.

Manager John McCaig said: “We had Accies on the backfoot for most of the match and the players can take a lot of encouragement. Aaron Muirhead, in particular, had an outstanding match.

“Even Accies coaching staff commented on the improvement from when we played them earlier in the season and they were relieved to leave with the points.”

The under 19s play their final match of the season at Lesser Hampden on Sunday against Queen’s Park.

No SFA Youth Initiative sides were in action as under 14s and 15s matches against Queen of the South were postponed.

The Academy thank Ayr United for giving them use of Somerset Park over the next couple of weeks to give young players the first team experience.

The under 14s will play Morton tonight (Thursday) at 7pm while the under 15s meet Queen’s Park on Sunday.

Other fixtures: U14: Sunday: v Clyde (a); U16: Sunday: v Queen’s Park (a).