Queen's Park 17s Squad

Saturday 10th April 2010

Sunderland 7-1 Queen's Park

The 17s travelled down to Sunderland on Saturday leaving Hampden at 8am to play against Sunderland's academy team in a 1:30pm kick-off. The weather was outstanding and the boys have really been looking forward to it.

The Queen's coaches, although quietly confident of doing ok, understood this was going to be an extremely difficult 90min against a Premiership academy slightly older and who are a game or two away from winning their youth league.

To add to this they also included some international players and the England captain to boot. This will be another good day for the boys education in football. Unfortunate for three of the squad, they were not fit enough to get involved in the game. This did allow one of our younger boys the experience.

The game started brightly for Queen's and they enjoyed lots of the ball. This was needed to try and calm the boys down.

Queen's moved the ball around the perfect pitch and pressed toward the Sunderland goal. Queen's felt confident but had to be aware of Sunderland's excellent movement.

The 17s created a few good opportunities early and got some early crosses in to test the Sunderland defence, forcing their goalkeeper into some fine saves.

After 20min Queen's took the lead. A fine corner from Thomas Denholm was knocked home by Ross Barbour. Just what Queen's needed.

You could see the confidence developing through the team and a sense that they can do well. With that you could here and see this had an affect on Sunderland who pushed their levels higher.

This now looked like game on but Queen's lost their way after 30min and shipped a few crazy goals. The first a penalty, then a bizarre own goal. The 17s should have levelled soon after but two fine saves from Sunderland goalkeeper denied them.

With the mistakes made the young players struggled to cope with overcoming their errors and it also had an effect the team's morale. This was hit home when Sunderland knocked another just before half time. The boys will hopefully be better players for it.

The high Queen's had for 30min disappeared in what seemed a blink of an eye. Going into the second half and a few forced changes it was going to be extremely tough.

Sunderland fully entertained us with their style in the second half and played a superb game. They forced Queen's onto their back foot and they only managed in small parts to enjoy the half.

A few set plays and crosses but unfortunate the 17s couldn't get themselves back into the game.

A big thank you must got to the parents for making the effort down to support the players and we were informed that the Sunderland parents were first class and praised the style Queen's played. They said it was a joy for them to see a team come and play football the right way against their boys.

The Sunderland coaches, back room team and physio also gave our lads lots of time and assistance which was greatly welcomed. We have never been looked this well before.

Coach Paul Ronald commented "An excellent experience for the kids and if they take on board how hard they need to work, they may well enjoy that sort of football and facilities in the future.

A big thank you to Kevin Ball the head of their youth who was very complementary on our team and style".

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