Celtic (14s) V AUFA (14s) – 12th August 2012
The AUFA 14s headed to Lennoxtown for their first pre-season game at the end of their first week of training. Ayr started brightly and strung together a series of passes however were unable to convert these into a strike on goal. Celtic were a significantly bigger team and worked hard to close down Ayr and force hurried passes. Celtic capitalised on this and after Ayr’s good start scored several goals in the first period. At the end of the first period Ayr created their best move when Jamie Martin and Leon Murphy exchanged passes and set up Kieran Balfour (pictured) whose shot from outside the box was agonisingly just over the bar. Nathan Baird had a good first period and worked well with Keiran and Jackson Sivewright in a three man centre midfield. Centre backs Lyle Cameron and Callum Ogston were up against two very good strikers who used their physical presence and pace to great effect. To their credit both Ayr boys matched Celtic’s front two for the majority of the period.
The second period continued in a similar fashion with Keiran driving Ayr forward from midfield. A series of attacks midway through the period by Keiran, Jamie and then Jackson almost led to a goal however Celtic continued to be more clinical in front of goal and scored more goals. In the third period Celtic’s longer pre-season showed as they looked physically stronger and scored more goals.
Ayr boys can take great credit for continuing to play football from the back and on several occasions they moved the ball well using both sides of the pitch. They will work on converting their possession into goal scoring opportunities over the coming weeks. They also didn’t let their heads go down and will have learnt a lot from playing probably the strongest team in their league. Trialists Nathan Baird & Fraser Paterson put in impressive performances.
