Youth Football: Throw of the Dyce cruel for Leith Athletic

Published on Saturday 16 May 2009 11:31

LEITH ATHLETIC under-14s suffered the most cruel defeat when losing 3-2 in extra time to Dyce Boys' Club in the final of the Scottish Youth FA Challenge Cup at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie, writes IAN MACKAY.

With only four minutes remaining, the Leith side led 2-0 until Dyce scored two goals to force the game into extra time.

It was almost inevitable what was to follow and it surely did when Kenneth Mair rifled home a magnificent shot on the run from the right to put the Aberdeen club 3-2 in front in the second half of extra time.

Leith Athletic were shattered and all they had to show for a brilliant display of attacking football was tears of disappointment at losing out in the biggest game of their young lives to date.

Leith Athletic were the better side from the start and they went 1-0 up in the very first minute from a Keiran Muirhead strike to give themselves what should have been a winning platform.

The Leith kids forced Dyce back into defence throughout the rest of the first half, but the big defenders in the Aberdeen side performed wonders to keep the score unchanged to half-time.

The standard of football from the Leith outfit was quite outstanding but Dyce looked an entirely different set of players on the restart.

Leith keeper Reece Smail was busier in the second half, but, when Scott Wilson was brought down in a heavy tackle on the left, that led to Leith scoring their second.

From the resultant free-kick, the ball was cleared by the Dyce defence only as far out as the waiting Ryan Ward and he hammered his shot into the back of the net.

But Dyce refused to give up and Smail pulled off several very good saves as the pace of the game increased.

It will be a real test of character for Leith to recover from this defeat. It was such a sore one for them.

Dyce Boys' Club: Daniel Tootill, Ross Cochrane, Nathan Greig, Martin Anderson, Stuart Close, Grant Thomson, Thomas Robertson, Craig MacAskill, Drew Copeland, Robbie Collinson, Kenneth Mair, Jack Goodwin, Lewis Michie, Cameron Buchan.

Leith Athletic: Reece Smail, Neil Fairnie, Lloyd McGee, Lewis Vaughan, Sean Murphy, Mark Kustra, Keiran Muirhead, Gavin Kneeshaw, Ryan Ward, Brendan Edwards, Jake Harper, Scott Wilson, Harvey McIntosh, Jason Coyle, Sean Melvin, Jordan Forbes, Conway Hunter.

Referee: Charles Cavanagh.