Seven heaven for Caithness United’s under-16s as they thrash Fort William in Highland Youth League fixture at Lochaber
A long 340-mile round trip to Fort William was what faced the Caithness Under-16s in their latest Highland Youth League fixture last Sunday.
The Caithness players had to contend with playing into the breeze and drizzle during the first half at Lochaber High School, where they did not get into their rhythm for the entire 45 minutes, and neither team really created any clear-cut chances to score in what was a dour first half.
However, Caithness seemed to spring into life in the second half with a polar opposite display from that of the first.
There was a new found energy, slick passing and movement to their game that their opponents found difficult to contend with.
Within the first two mins of the restart, Max Ross’ cross-come-shot ended up in the back of the net, and that seemed to give the United players belief, as they kicked-on from that point.
Caithness ended up dominating the remainder of the match whilst also finding a ruthless streak in front of goal that saw them score seven goals without reply.
Those goals came from Max Ross (2), Cory Miller (2), Jamie Steven (2) and Liam Semple.
They kept a clean sheet too, thanks to United’s ‘keeper Kyle Bain, who pulled off an incredible double save from a penalty, when they were 4-0 up.
After the game Kevin Miller reflected on the match by saying: “Our first half performance was really poor, it passed a lot of our players by, if I am honest.
“However, the big positive for me was how once we had a word with the players at half time, they took on-board those instructions and demands, and it was like a different team when they went out in the second half.
“We really need to be putting on those types of performances from the start though.
“I’d like to give a special mention to our goal keeper Kyle too, who conceded a penalty, but made up for it by saving the pen and also a cracking stop from the rebound too, and keeping a clean sheet for the team.”
Miller continued: “We play Ross County next weekend, who’ve got a 100 per cent record in this competition, so that will obviously be a really tough test and a measure of where our players are at. We can’t wait.”