December 27th 2024
THE under-20s make their Football Times Cup debut tomorrow as they make the trip to Tain for a first round tie against St Duthus. Stuart Finnie's side were unfortunate to go out of the Scottish Youth Cup in their last outing as they went down on penalties at Inverurie Locos after a battling performance for 120 minutes at Harlaw Park. Finnie will be demanding the same effort and application from his charges in this one as they chase their first win of the new season. St Duthus have started the new season fire with two wins from their opening two North Caledonian League fixtures to sit level on points with Thurso at the top of the pile and they will go into this match confident of making it three victories from three to progress to the quarter finals. A preview of the match is below: Date: Saturday September 16th 2017 Competition: Football Times Cup Kick-off: 1430 Opponents: St Duthus Venue: The Links, Tain Previous meeting: Nairn County U20s 2 St Duthus 4 December 7th 2016 (friendly) Last time out: St Duthus 3 Halkirk United 0; Inverurie Locos U20s 2 Nairn County U20s 2 (AET, Inverurie won 4-1 on penalty kicks). Team news: Stuart Finnie takes a depleted under-20s squad with him to Tain for this first round tie in the Football Times Cup. Craig McDermott, Sam Gordon and Jack W. Maclean are all out of the squad for the trip north with the first two unavailable due to work commitments while the latter has a knee injury, which forced him off at half-time in the cup tie at Inverurie. Calum Grant has been back training with the squad after spending the summer in America but he is also unavailable for this match while Craig Munro and Max Ewan are in the first team squad. Aaron Fraser is not quite ready to return and Struan Tweedie is struggling with a buttock injury. On the plus side, Matty Macleod is fit again and returned to training this week and Tyler Eadie has been called up from the under-17s. Squad: Fraser Wilkie, Aidan Stewart, Struan Tweedie, Euan Wheeler, Josh Millard, Sandy Main, Andrew Colliar, Cameron Maclean, Ian Payne, Sam Campbell, Joe Cuthbert, Seamus McConaghy, Matty Macleod, Alex Geddes, Ryan MacBean, Tyler Eadie. Match officials: Referee Barry Stuart. Weather forecast: Thick cloud 11 degrees 11 mph wind. Admission prices: Adults free Concessions free. Graeme Macleod
