Kilwinning Rangers 2 Queen’s Park U19s 2
Kilwinning Rangers 2 Queen's Park 2
QUEEN’S PARK under-19s were pitched into ‘one of the toughest games of the season’ by coach Charley King.
Ross McLean’s double helped the Young Spiders emerge with a 2-2 draw in Ayrshire against West of Scotland Premier Division side Kilwinning Rangers.
The friendly was organised to cover a blank fixture slot in the schedule following Morton’s withdrawal from the CAS Advanced League at 19s level.
It proved to be a real test for the team of teenagers which finished the game even younger with a string of substitutions made in the second half.
By that stage though McLean had struck twice – the second a brilliant free-kick in off the post – to send the Spiders into a clear lead.
The midfielder missed most of pre-season and the early part of the campaign with injury but is well on the road to full recovery and has been included in Sean Crighton’s recent first-team pools.
He did his chances of a return no harm at all with a great performance, opening the scoring in the first half then proving his set-piece prowess in the second.
Several first-team players joined McLean in the 19s ranks for the match at Buffs Park, but were substituted with a view to their top team training schedule midway through the second half.
That allowed the home side back into the game for a short period against an even younger Spiders side, and Kilwinning capitalised to level the scores although the southsiders did finish the match stronger again.
Coach Charley King said: “We expected this to be one of our toughest games of the season – a team from the junior ranks, in the top league of the West of Scotland leagues and on their own turf which is quite a tight ground.
“It was a different challenge than what the boys are used to, against a physical team.
“We also had a few boys missing which put us down in numbers and meaning we drafted in four more under-17s. That is a big ask against a men’s team from the junior ranks.
“But for me, for the first 60 minutes we were brilliant. Brave, passing out from the back even though it was a tight, bobbly pitch. I thought we controlled the game and dominated possession in the first half creating a lot of chances.
“We scored a good goal through Ross to go 1-0 up and in the second half he scored another – a free-kick off the post and in.
“With the first team having training on Thursday a few of the older players came off with half an hour to go. That meant we ended the game as a really young team, Kilwinning came back into it and and scored a couple with 15 minutes to go but in the remaining minutes we ended the game on top and could have won it.
“All in all, I was pleased with that reaction from the young guys after conceding two goals and it was a good test for us.
“We are asking a lot of the guys to push through and play 90 minutes regularly and the likes of Leo Clark, Leo Fisher and Cole Burke have been doing that, and doing well. The message to them is simple – keep it up.”
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