St Mirren U19s 1-2 Gretna U19s

For the first time this season we put pressure on our players to win the game. Finding out which players can handle these demands contributes to their development, the latter being the name of the game.

But we could not have made a worse start when straight from the kick-off they attacked down our left and scored from the resulting cross with a shot that lobbed over Conor Grant. Twenty-four seconds gone and we are one down to a team that prevented Celtic scoring in similar circumstances.

From that point we controlled the game however, dominating possession and pushing hard for an equaliser. Defending in numbers was St Mirren’s tactic and as hard as we tried we could not get the goal our play deserved.

The game continued in the same manner after the break with the odd counter attack from St Mirren and lots of near misses from Gretna.

With twenty minutes to go we changed our formation to 3-5-2 and within two minutes substitute Joe Hughes raced away down the right and at the second attempt slammed the ball in to the back of the net.

And straight from the kick-off, we took the lead. The ball was played up to Joe Hughes and he was brought-down by his marker in the box.

Ryan O’Hara was instructed to take the penalty despite competition from several players and he dually obliged by placing the ball to the goalkeepers left.

This was a well deserved win by our young team and we gave them four days off as a reward for their commitment throughout the season.

GRETNA: Grant, Campagna, Johnson (Hughes), Shultz-Eklund, Faulds, Sharples, Smee, O’Hara, Taylor, McKinlay, Robinson. Subs not used: Moffet, Easton.