Feruz shines as Scots make flying start Scotland 4 Armenia 0: Feruz shines as Sbragia's boys make flying start

Sports Writer

Wednesday 10 October 2012

SCOTLAND's teenagers took an adult-sized stride towards the elite round of the 2013 European Under-19 Championship with this accomplished victory over Armenia.

Joseph Chalmers celebrates scoring the opener. Picture: SNS

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Stewart Fisher at New Douglas Park

The top two teams from this qualifying group, which also includes Romania and Switzerland, guarantee themselves the right to contest a place in next summer's continental finals in Lithuania and four goals in 19 second-half minutes were enough to put Ricky Sbragia's side on to easy street. With the other two sides playing out a 1-1 draw at the Falkirk Stadium, victory for Scotland against Romania tomorrow night would see them get their work done early.

Chelsea's Islam Feruz led the line in Sbragia's 4-2-3-1 shape, and while he did not score for his adopted country, his coach was effusive in his praise of the former Celtic player. "I thought Islam was outstanding tonight and this was probably the best game he has played for us," said Sbragia. "He had good movement, good body strength, and I really wish he had got a goal because he deserved it. But the team won and he made a great goal for Kennedy. I was really pleased for him."This age group in Scotland is bursting with potential –Aberdeen's Ryan Fraser, the SPL young player of the month, didn't even make it on to the field –and Sbragia had the rare privilege of fielding players with first-team experience at both Celtic and Rangers. They didn't disappoint. The side was captained expertly by Fraser's namesake Marcus of Celtic, the opening goal came from a free kick from Parkhead left-back Joseph Chalmers which would have done Charlie Mulgrew proud, while Barrie McKay and Lewis MacLeod, the two teenage tearaways who have kept their heads above water in Rangers' third division travails this season, netted a fine goal each. Matthew Kennedy, a winger who did enough at Kilmarnock to impress David Moyes at Everton, completed the scoring after Feruz had outrageously wriggled past three defenders on the right-hand touchline.Scotland have never played Armenia at full level, but they had met at this age group almost exactly three years ago (the Scots winning 6-1 in Austria) and before long Feruz was terrorising their back four. On another day, he might have had four goals in the first half. His flashy finish as he ran on to a pass from John Herron was too close to goalkeeper Gevorg Harutyunyan, then fired into the sidenetting from a dangerous McKay centre. The Somali-born youngster then swivelled to fire an drive off the underside of the crossbar before stinging Harutyunyan's palms once more on the turn.There were a few hairy moments at the other end too. "I wasn't happy at half-time, because we were too deep, too open as a team," said Sbragia. "If we had played the way we did in the first half against a better team we could have been one or two down."Such frustrations were forgotten within minutes of the restart Chalmers, a stalwart of Celtic's NextGen Series team, curled in the sweetest of free-kicks into the top corner with his left foot, after a quickly worked set-piece with Herron. Suddenly confidence flooded through Scotland, Feruz did a party piece down the right, and Kennedy kept his cool to knock the ball in at the far post. McKay came in off the right flank to curl in a beauty from 22 yards with his left foot, before a fourth goal which was an all-Rangers affair, McKay feeding in the onrushing MacLeod, who finished with aplomb.

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Feruz shines as Scots make flying start Scotland 4 Armenia 0: Feruz shines as Sbragia's boys make flying start

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