Caithness United under-16s take positives from defeat to young Staggies
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An appreciative crowd at Wick's Upper Bignold Park witnessed a well-contested challenge match between Caithness United’s under-16s and their Ross County counterparts, with the visitors running out 4-0 winners.
The Ross-shire youths were the more threatening in the first third, although Caithness looked dangerous on the break with their pace and power up front. However, it was the young Staggies who made the breakthrough towards the end of the first third through an unusual error in the Caithness defence.
County were seeing most of the ball, although United were holding their own defensively thanks mainly to keeper Leo Shearer and centre-back Carter MacKay. However, goalscoring opportunities for the hosts were sparse.
Ross County grew into the game and looked a more confident outfit once they had scored their second. They added a couple of well-worked goals in the final third of the match.
The 100-plus crowd applauded the players' efforts at the final whistle.
Caithness coach Alan Kennedy said: “If I’m honest, I am a little frustrated. We would have liked to have brought a higher intensity into the match, and also for our lads to have kept possession better.
"However, we have positives to take from the game too, and we will be focusing on these when we go over the game with the players.
"We knew this would be a tough test for the team but we are positive it will prove to be valuable for their development and, as such, we plan to continue to test them in similar-type games over the course of the season, when possible.”
Kennedy added: “As a club, we’d like to thank Carl Tremarco, Mark MacKernie and Gordon Duff for agreeing to the fixture and getting their squad to Wick for the game. Hopefully we can work out a date for a return fixture in the coming months.
"Credit to their team too – they obviously have some very good players, and their quality was evident in spells throughout the match. We wish them well for their upcoming fixtures.
"What was also particularly pleasing was that four former Caithness United players played within their set-up today, and looked the part.”
Caithness United U16s’ next match is against Clach, at Bught Park in Inverness, this Sunday (September 26), with a 2pm kick-off.
