It’s been a busy time for our Academy sides with three games this week. 

The under 19s travelled to Glasgow for a CAS league game against Queens Park. The hosts opened the scoring after just two minutes and added a second three minutes before the interval to give them a two goal lead at half-time. 

Three minutes after the restart, Brodie Dair pulled one back to the reduce the deficit but the home side restored their advantage two minutes later. Within sixty seconds our boys were reduced to ten men as Billy Gray was shown a red card and they made the extra man count, scoring a further three to win by six goals to one.

Coach Eddie Warwick said “After conceding the early goal we settled into the game and played very well reducing Queens Park to very little in our box and our goalkeeper had nothing to do until we conceded a poor goal from a corner just before the break. It was a really disappointing end to the half where we produced so many positive moments without a clinical finish and goal I felt we deserved. We started the second half on the front foot, scoring a well worked goal and a fine finish from Brodie and then the sucker punch of a red card early in the second half obviously changed the game massively in there favour and it was extremely difficult playing with ten men. 

Queens team v Queens Park: Scott, Reilly, Murphy, Copland. Morton, Luissint, Harris, McColm, Jones, Dair & Gray.

The under 17s also had an away game in their league on Friday night when they travelled to Almondvale to take on Livingston.

The first half was nothing to write home about for both sides but Queens fell behind as the home side scored with a freak deflection from a free kick.

The second half was a different story as Queens upped their levels and took the game to the hosts. With twenty minutes to go the young side were unlucky not to get a penalty when the ball was handled above head height on the goal line. However the referee was not 100% sure and it wasn’t given. Credit to the boys, they continued to press the home defence and were unlucky not to equalise.

Coach Ross Newlands said “ It was a hard one to take based on the second half performance. The boys knew the first half wasn't up to scratch but responded well.”

And yesterday the under 19s were back in action as they took on Wigtown in the first round of the Potts Cup.

William Salfenmoser set the tone of the game as he opened the scoring after just forty-five seconds with a right foot rocket into the top corner from just inside the box. A good start to the game saw them race into a five goal lead after 25 minutes. They added another to go in six up at the break and another five in the second half eased them into the next round. Amongst the eleven goals, Ants Harris and Rocco McColm both grabbed a double while Salfenmoser added another hat-trick to his amazing goal tally.

Eddie Warwick said “We had a incredible start to the game, the quality of the goals were excellent. They never let up as they stayed hungry and relentless in there play and working ever so hard to maintain standards and concentration. Overall a very good afternoons work and we will are delighted to get through to the next round of the cup.”

Queens team: Webster, Morton, Thomson, Robinson, Murphy, McColm, Harris, Bell, Jones, Reilly, Salfenmoser, Copland, Cluckie, Aldulemy,& Udieba.

The sides now have a break until their Scottish FA U18s cup tie away at Fraserburgh on the 23rd.