Football Academy reports

Published 3 Feb 2010 13:35 0 Comments

Share this

AYR UNITED 1 PARTICK THISTLE 5

Coach Tom Robertson has thrown the gauntlet down to his young side after this disappointing display at Carrick Academy on Sunday. In a match in which United started strongly and took an early lead, they then inexplicably capitulated as the visitors hit five without reply.

"Overall this was a very poor display" said Robertson after the game. "The players are far better than this performance showed but their attitude was all wrong and that will have to improve greatly in the coming weeks. There was an improvement in the second period but by then the damage was already done"

United started well and created a number of chances early on and Stewart Milligan was unlucky to see his effort cleared off the line. However in the 15th minute, the home side took a deserved lead when Dale Moore's shot was parried by the Thistle keeper and George Thompson followed up to score.

But then it all went disastrously wrong as the visitors took charge and scored four goals before the break to go in at half time with a healthy lead.

The second half was a far more even affair but it was Thistle who added to their tally with a late penalty.

SFL Youth League: Under 17

AYR UNITED 1 ALLOA ATHLETIC 2

Right from the word go the visitors signalled their intentions with long high balls into the Ayr half and after only 2 minutes had the Ayr defence panicking. A slip up by Liam Steel at left back conceded an early corner and from that an Alloa player rose unchallenged to nod the ball home.

In the 15th minute Ayr produced some great play when Shaun Kelly played the ball into Marc Dyer, who in turn laid the ball wide to Allan Paterson. He jinked across the edge of the box before slipping a wonderful ball through to Scott Johnson but with only the keeper to beat the Ayr striker scuffed the shot into the keepers hands.

Ten minutes later Ayr found themselves 2-0 down. Again they couldn't cope with Alloa's long ball game and struggled to deal with their more physical opponents, most of whom were in excess of 6 foot tall. From another corner and a low knock on at the front post then found their striker who nodded in unchallenged from 6 yards.

Ayr then made 2 forced changes due to injury and tactically reshuffled their pack. This made the world of difference and totally changed the flow of the game. Some more great work from Dyer saw him forced wide but he crossed brilliantly for Nugent but his header came back off the post, and even though Dyer was there to hammer the rebound goal wards the keeper reacted well enough to turn the ball wide.

In the second half it was all Ayr. The football they were playing was leaving their opponents struggling to deal with their sharp passing play and United pulled one back when Johnston stepped up and curled a superb free kick from 25 yards past the keeper. Ayr were moving the ball about brilliantly and almost got back on level terms in the 77th minute. Some neat build up play by Scott Jackson and Nugent saw the ball land at Johnston's feet he cleverly laid the ball into the path of Dyer who clipped the ball towards goal from all of 30 yards but the ball cannoned off the bar and down into the keeper's hands. Ayr pressed forward, continually opening up the Alloa defence but could just not get the second gaol they deserved.

Coach Allan Paul said "Many good performances. In goal Ross McBride returned after almost a year out with injury and produced some good stops to keep Ayr's confidence up but outfield Allan Paterson's tenacity saw him terrorise the Alloa team. A great footballing display in the second half and you can see the main part of the boys development in playing good attractive attacking football, but they must start games better and handing the initiative to their opponents and stop leaving themselves an uphill battle !!!!!"

Follow @cumnockchron

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.