IN Malta in May, a small band of Scottish teenagers made it to the last four of the European Under-17 championships.
An icy Rugby Park last night seemed like light years away from that, but this friendly win against a Romania side featuring Ianis Hagi, the son of the legendary Gheorghe, was still a satisfactory first step for the latest batch.
Having made it through a preliminary round in the Republic of Ireland, Scot Gemmill's young side take on the Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina and hosts Hungary in an elite round next month. The eight group winners and seven best runners will book their place in an expanded 16-team finals in Bulgaria this summer.
"There were definitely some good performances within the team performance," said Gemmill afterwards, "but if I am being truthful I don't think we played to the level that we will need to in the elite round. But the real credit to those players is that they can still beat a team of that calibre."
There was plenty of inventiveness about the young Scots early on. Mark Hill - an energetic midfielder who Hamilton almost gave first team football at the age of 14 prior to his move to Celtic - and home favourite Adam Frizzell, of Kilmarnock, were to the fore, while Harry Souttar, the 6ft 6in younger brother of United defender John, distributed the ball well from the back. It was the last kick of the half, though, before we had anything to trouble the scorers. After some good work from Hill, the Celtic connection paid off when his clubmate Regan Hendry arrived to steer in a fine left foot shot.
Hagi Jnr, currently attached to a club in Turkey, was among a phalanx of Romanian half-time changes but the equaliser that Scotland conceded was self inflicted. Goalkeeper Robby McCrorie, one half of a pair of Rangers twins in this group, is confident enough in his footwork to have executed a Cruyff turn during the first period, but a sloppy pass presented the ball to Adrian Petre, who slipped the ball into the corner.
The young Scots could have caved but instead they found a reaction. Left back Daniel Harvie, another impressive Aberdeen youngster, speared a ball across the six yard box and Celtic's Calvin Miller, a 'veteran' of both the Malta team and Scotland's 2013 Victory Shield winning side, pounced to knock in the winner.
Scotland Under-17s (4-2-3-1): Robby McCrorie; Finlayson, Souttar, Higgins, Harvie; Wilson (Stirling 72), Hendry; Hill, Frizzell (Coote 60), Miller; Smith (Ross 60).
Subs not used: Doohan, Kerr, Norris, Jeffries, Allan, McLennan, McNaughton, Ross McCrorie.
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