The Under 19 and under 17 sides were both in action against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in their respective leagues this afternoon.
The 19s went down by three goals to two, with Billy Gray who played the second half for the first team yesterday at Stranraer scoring both goals.
Coach Eddie Warwick said “We made a poor start to the game and for 25 minutes we were slack with the ball, we made poor decision, lost the individual battles and by not getting up on the second balls we let them bully us in and out of posession and it took us a while to grow into the game. We tweeked somethings at half time and we were very good in the second half and had a strong last 20 minutes.”
“Unfortunately you cant win games at this level only turning up for 60 minutes and giving away soft goals. So there is a lot to learn but there were some positives within the defeat and some good performances, especially from Billy Gray, Joe Thomson, Ross Daly and Rhilay Walls.”
FT INVERNESS U19s 3 QOS U19s 2
Meanwhile, a depleted under 17s squad won 3-1. William Salfenmoser added to his goal tally with a hat trick in the game played at Stirling university. Queens rode their luck early doors before the keeper brought down Lewis White and Salfenmoser converted the penalty to give Queens the lead. A second followed when William got on the end of a great through ball which split the centre halves and he slipped the ball past the keeper.
He then missed a glorious chance from inside the 6-yard box on the half hour mark and instead Inverness broke and scored from a set piece to make it 2-1 at the break.
Like the first half the back four dealt well with the ICT pressure at start of second half and from a set piece of our own the youngster scored his and Queens third after the keeper spilled into his path. The boys saw the game out very well as both sides missed a couple of chances.
Coach Ross Newlands said “I am delighted for the boys today. Due to Storm Amy playing havoc with our fixture against Greenock Morton, we haven’t played since we beat Falkirk and I feared the momentum of getting our first victory of the season had gone. To the players’ credit they kept it going this afternoon and ground out a hard fought victory. To do it with a squad of 12 is testament to their character. They’ve trained well since the Falkirk game but nothing beats playing matches. I thought across the park we were excellent, we were solid defensively and clinical in attack when we had to be.”
FULL TIME: ICT U17s 1 QOS 3
The 17s now have another break due to the school holidays. And it gives them a chance to get some players back ahead of their next game away at Kelty Hearts on Sunday 2nd November.