Under-18 heroics fill Stewart Taylor with optimism

SCOTLAND schoolboys under-18 head coach Stewart Taylor believes school football still has a big part to play in producing future professionals after he hailed this season's squad as one of the best he has ever worked with.

Nearly two weeks on from the Under-18s' historic 1-0 win over England in Inverness gave them a share of the SAFIB Centenary Shield with Northern Ireland, Taylor is still enthusing about the group of players he had at his disposal over the last few months.

Led by Hillpark Secondary's central midfielder Alan Urquhart, the squad clocked up draws against Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as wins over Wales and England, and Taylor said: "I thought the guys did really well throughout the tournament, but the England performance was something special.

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"We asked them to go out there and give it everything they had and stick to the game plan and every player did just that. It was great exposure for the boys and for schools football in general that the match was live on Sky Sports and I thought Alan Urquhart was the best player on the pitch, he controlled things.

"He was involved with the squad last season, but missed out through injury and when he was injured earlier in the tournament I thought the curse had struck again. He worked hard to prove his fitness though and I was delighted with his showing against England."

The coach has been involved with schoolboy football since 1974 and the national set-up since 1991 and, augmented by his role within the Stirling Albion youth set-up, he always keeps an eye on how the players progress after their time with the Under-18 squad.

"I believe that the success they have had this season will help a lot of this squad kick on after school and hopefully continue to play football in the SPL or SFL. A number of them are already linked to SFL clubs, but for the ones who aren't hopefully the England match may get them some interest.

"Over the last few years some people have doubted the importance of schools football, but not all players peak at an early age and are lucky enough to get picked up by clubs. Others simply don't want to join clubs and want to play at school with their friends and they have to be catered for.

"The Scottish Schools Football Association works hard to promote the game and undoubtedly schools football has its place in Scotland."

Meanwhile, Holyrood Secondary from Glasgow defeated Holy Rood High School from Edinburgh 2-1 in the Scottish Schools under-16 Shield final in Livingston on Sunday.

The Edinburgh school started well and nearly took the lead after 20 minutes when a shot from Brendan Edwards was missed by the keeper but superbly cleared by left-back Jordan Wilson. However, they did take the lead three minutes later through a Sean Alexander strike.

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Just before the break Holyrood Secondary drew level.A long free-kick from the impressive Gary Duggan found Mark McKenna whose effort hit the post, but rebounded perfectly to Conor Maguire to shoot home.

Maguire got his second of the match five minutes into the second period and the Glasgow school were starting to control things before Holy Rood HS's Lewis Vaughan dislocated his elbow seeing the match delayed for more than 20 minutes.

The delay rattled his team mates and they conceded a goal within two minutes of the re-start. Duggan fired a low left-footed into the net and that was the way things finished.

And Scotland schoolgirls Under-15 squad emerged with great credit from their first ever match with England despite a defeat.

More than 400 people were in the Toryglen Indoor Arena to watch the encounter and the Scots held their own in the first half, Castle Douglas High School's Lois Heuchan scoring to leave the score at 1-1.

After the interval England scored two goals to win 3-1, but the girls were pleased with their showing.