Saints Under 19s earned an impressive victory at a chilly and blustery Striling Univeristy on Satutrday.
Alec Cleland's boys had beaten the league leaders in the away fixture back in October last year, so headed into the game knowing that the opposition were beatable. Long-term injury victim, Chris Kane, has stepped up his rehabilitation recently and is currently able to do some running but the game came too soon for him; also missing out was regular centre half, Gareth Rodger, who is currently troubled with a knee injury. Gareth turned up to offer words of encouragement from the sidelines wearing a rather intersting pair of pink trousers....
Alastair Worby continued in goal with a defence of Greg Mitchell, Chris Moffat(C), Ally Gilchrist and Aiden Hendry. In midfield, Scotty Gray and Andrew Steeves flanked Keiran Stewart and Ricky McIntosh whilst up top it the cosmopolitan pairing of Ryan Hutchinson and Callum McConnell.
The game got off to the a bright and competitive start with 8 corners in the first half and a booking apiece. Both cards being displayed following cyncial tackles around the half way line, preventing a quick counter. It was Saints who opened the scoring first; a corner from Scotty Gray caused all sorts of problems and Ryan Hutchison wheeled away in celebration. The official site credits the goal to Callum McConnell. Either way the shot wrong footed the visiting goalkeeper and rolled into the net.
You can imagine that Alec was delighted at half time as he gave the lads their pep-talk and stressed the importance of hard work; pressing and communication. He would have been much less impressed by the sight of goalkeeper Alastair Worby falling to the ground having taken a sore knock of his right kidney. The keeper got up and played on but he was in obvious discomfort when kicking from hand.
Hearts were attacking hard but Saints remained resolute throughout. Local lad Andrew Steeves, who rushed a decent chance in the first half, was providing a great out ball for Aiden Hendry down the left, whilst the tenacious Greg Mitchell linked well with both Gray and Hutchison down the right hand side. Indeed a long, overhit pass for Scotty Gray seemed to be heading out the park until the wee winger dived in and clipped a magnificent ball into the box. The ball fell nicely for Cal McConnell who finished with some aplomb. At 2-0 with 25 minutes left to play you wouldn't want to be in Alec Cleland's position. It was a lead we deserved but Hearts were clearly going all out attack and a flurry of subs from the Tynescastle based team gave a clear indication that the game wasn't yet over.
Thankfully for Saints the defence and keeper were the match for each Hearts attack. Indeed we looked ever more threatening on the counter attack and it was during a counter attack that one of our players was fouled in the centre of the park. As he tried to get up he was clearly hauled back and the referee quite rightly flashed a second yellow and with it Hearts hopes were dashed. If they thought that was bad much worse came from the freekick. Keeper Worby found Aiden Hendry wide left, he clipped in a great ball for Callum McConnell and Scotty Gray nipped in at the back post to grab a strikers goal that former U19 striker Stevie May would have approved of.
The Saints players unwound slightly and paid the price. Hearts pulled a goal back with two minutes of regulation time left. A scramble at 20 yards was never fully cleared and eventually a speculative shot whistled high into Worby's right hand corner. The keeper perhaps would have saved it, but he was undoubtedly unsighted by the number of bodies in front of him.
The referee, who was letter of the law all day long, played the full amount of injury time, but Saints enjoyed the best of what remained. As the whistle blew, Callum had been replaced by tricky wide man Thomson and all the players surrounded youth coach Alec Cleland to celebrate a significant and throughly deserved win.
With Liam Caddis, Mark Durnan, Stevie May and Zander Clark have made great strides over the season, our current U19s can look forward to being afforded plenty opportunity under Alec, Steve Lomas and Tommy Wright. The weekend win should give them all the confidence that they can go on and make a career in the game. Our hope is that one or two will blossom into replacements for first team stars like Sandaza, Morris, Croft or pehaps a current left back from Stirlingshire....
Saints U19 next play at noon on Friday 16 March when they face third place Hibernian, again at Stirling.
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