Scotland U19s: Mark Beck at the double in comeback

A BRAVE fightback from two goals down from Scotland’s Under-19 side was capped by a late winner from Rangers youngster Barrie McKay as Sweden were defeated 3-2 on a cold night at Ayr’s Somerset Park.

The friendly game was part of Ricky Sbragia’s squad’s warm up for May’s elite qualifying round for this summer’s European finals and the Scots went into it missing the attacking threat of Islam Feruz and Ryan Fraser who are with the under-21 squad, and John McGinn, who was rested after his League Cup winning exploits with St Mirren.

The Swedes opened the scoring in fortunate circumstances four minutes from the break when Kristoffer Olsson curled over a free kick from the left and Victor Soderstrom’s header hit off Alex Davey six yards out and rolled in for an own goal.

The Scots introduced towering Carlisle striker Mark Beck for his debut at half-time, however less than two minutes into the restart Soderstrom made it two with a fierce shot from the edge of the box. On 55 minutes Sweden gave Scotland a route back into the game when Matthew Kennedy’s in-swinging corner was headed into his own net by Victor Lindelof at the front post.

It was 2-2 with just over an hour played as Beck slid in to knock home a cut back from Jamie Lindsay. The Scots sneaked what had looked like an unlikely win when Beck headed a corner past Linus Muller three minutes from time.