THE first chance arrived quickly.

Yannick Ebwa, the tall and powerful winger, darted down the right and breezed past his marker, taking long strides into the penalty box. His shot flew wide, but the attacks kept coming. Ebwa galloped into the area again, was brought down. Penalty, surely! The referee said no, but it had to be only a matter of time before the opener arrived.

Still, they had to be careful. The full-backs, Michael Martins on the left in particular, were playing like wingers: regularly caught offside, even. Meanwhile, the opposition were leaving two up front, with only two staying behind to match them. The head coach shouted at Cederic Leandro, his defensive midfielder. "Get back! You need to drop in to cover!" He was greeted by a quizzical look.

"Yeah, communication is signal-based at the moment," sighs Andy Thomson, afterwards. "You saw it in the game there, trying to get your point across, shouting their name . . . he has to become the guy that sits to make it 3 v 2."

It was Saturday afternoon, the second round of the South Regional Challenge Cup. Edusport Academy, a residential football school based in Hamilton for talented young French footballers, were taking on the University of Glasgow. The venture, now in its fourth year, is the brainchild of Chris Ewing, once a trainee at Motherwell.

Young players are brought from all over France to live in Hamilton for nine months, taught to speak English and trained full-time as footballers, by the likes of Guillaume Beuzelin, the former Hibernian player, while Colin Cameron, the one-time Scotland midfielder, oversees a second batch of the fledgling players in Edinburgh.

Ewing himself is based in France, busy now organising trials for next season's crop of students: Paris, Rennes, Lyons, Bordeaux. From 2015, Brussels will come on board, too, and plans are afoot for a new school for female footballers.

The academy has entered a team in the South of Scotland League. It's quite an experience for them: a side with an average age of 19 playing against the wizened, grizzled, 30-something brutes of south-west Scotland. Things often become a bit of a wrestling match, limbs flying everywhere and balls sent long on the frozen hoof. All part of the learning curve, but a far cry from warm summers in Marseilles.

"Kick and rush!" exclaims Jeremy Mpouma, the centre-half, shaking his head. He points to opposite ends of the pitch. "The ball just goes from here to here. And it's a lot more physical. It's harder to play football because everybody puts pressure on. It's more tactical in France."

Charaf Haifi, the clever midfielder, agrees. "It's hard because of the pressure," he says, before also paying tribute to Saturday's opponents. "But today, we played against a team who played football. And it was no more easy for us."

Even so, the opening goal was not late in coming. Quentin Fouley, the tall, skilful striker, fired off a long- range effort that the Glasgow Uni goalkeeper somehow managed to divert on to the crossbar with an outstretched leg. The ball looped up, and in rushed Ebwa to smash it into the roof of the net. They quickly doubled their lead, too. Lucas Vanmeenen twisted and turned inside the box, before laying the ball off for Fouley to fire home.

Their opponents were frustrated. Martins was dashing up and down the left flank, making a nuisance of himself. Too quick, too skilful, too full of zip; his peskiness earned a punch in the back of the head. Bienvenue to Scotland, pal. Red card.

"The difficult part is selecting the team," says Thomson, the former Queen of the South and Partick Thistle striker. "We've got 35 here, and obviously everybody wants to play every week. So every week the team changes. It's not based on results. If we get results, brilliant, but the focus is on developing them as individuals, because that's why they're here."

The game was fizzling out as Glasgow Uni sat in two banks of four and invited them to come on. "Keep passing!" shouted Thomson.

"Let them pass!" countered his opposite number. On the pitch, it seemed fitting that one of those trying to face up to all the Gallic flair seemed the typical wee Scotsman: a stout, niggly, annoying winger with a quick mouth. He pulled a goal back out of nowhere, riding a couple of challenges and blocking a clearance that then flew in past Benoit Bouillant, the unlucky goalkeeper.

"For us, what we look at is: have we improved them?" says Thomson. "Undoubtedly. They've got a load more to improve on, we're always on at them. It's not just about having a nice pass here and there, it's about doing it quickly. And not switching off when you're 2-0 up . . ."

The comeback, anyway, was to prove shortlived. Edusport won a corner, it was swung over by Vanmeenen and headed home by Leandro. The clock ticked down as Glasgow Uni's 10 men worked to stifle any creativity. The referee eventually blew the whistle to the relief of the shattered visitors and much high-fiving among the French.

"I don't want to go back to Paris," smiles Mpouma, still breathing heavily as he leans against the metal rail. "I like Scotland. This is a good opportunity, a chance to see another football, you know? And maybe to sign a professional contract here."

The academy aims to give the lads life skills, in case it doesn't work out in football, but Nico Caraux, the Morton goalkeeper who performed heroics when they knocked Celtic out of the League Cup last season, is proof the academy can produce players good enough for our game.

"Some of them could play at a real decent level, aye," says Thomson. "But stopping them is their attitude. They're not used to training, some of them, the way we train here. They don't train at as high a tempo. When we do drills . . . they're not overly keen on it. They prefer to play games.

"If they went in to Scottish clubs, they would need to change straight away. They have the ability. Whether Scottish clubs would see it as a gamble or not? It's up to them."

Edusport Academy play their home games at Hamilton Palace Grounds. Their full fixture list is available at www.edusportacademy.com