Ayr United Football Academy teams kick-off season

Aug 15 2008

SUNDAY saw the start of the new season for the Ayr United Football Academy's teams at under 17 and under 19 level in their respective competitive SFL Youth Divisions.

Queen's Park were the visitors to Ladywell Stadium, Maybole for the under 19s first match of the new campaign.

This was a tough opener for the United kids for their first match of the campaign as the Hampden side had won the league at the under 17 age group last season but in a hard fought encounter it was United who triumphed by a 2-0 scoreline.

Ayr started brightly and had a couple of good early chances but in the 20th minute they took a deserved lead when from a well delivered free kick into the box, Robertson rose unchallenged to power a header past the helpless Queen's keeper.

However the visitors worked their way back into the game and for spells dominated possession but on the rare occasion they breached the home rearguard, they found keeper Mitchell in fine form.

But despite having the better of the possession, they rarely threatened the home goal and the United youngsters got themselves back into the game with the pace of Ireland in particular causing the visitors problems at the back.

Then in the 74th minute, United doubled their advantage when, from a Scoular cross, substitute Connolly nipped in front of his marker to prod the ball into the net.

Queen's were reduced to 10 men when frustration got the better of their striker who retaliated to a challenge inside the box, as Ayr held on comfortably to see out the game.

Next Sunday the 19s are away to Dunfermline.

After two years of playing non-competitive football in the SFA Youth Initiative, The Academy's under 17s played their first competitive match at pro-youth level and came away from Links Park with a good 1-0 win over a very physical Montrose side.

United started strongly with Scott Arthur causing the home side all sorts of problems and it wasn't long before United made their advantage count when Paul Bunten latched onto a cross ball to net from close range.

Ayr continued to press forward and should have scored more but some poor finishing kept the home side in the match, with the post denying Scott Arthur as Ayr went in at the break with only a 1-0 advantage.

In the second half George Thompson struck the bar and Archer hit the side netting in a one on one with the keeper.

It was the ideal start to the players’ first competitive action and they have another tough game next week with a home match against Clyde.

The fixtures for the SFA Youth Initiative have been released for the new campaign. The new Ayr United under 14s will face a baptism of fire at pro-youth level with a home match against former SFA Performance Club Ross County on August 23rd.

On the same day, the under 15s make the opposite journey with a trip to Dingwall while the under 16s are also on the road, this time to Cumbernauld to play Clyde.

All three teams have had a good pre-season so far, chalking up some impressive results and the boys are looking forward to the new season with much anticipation.