YOUNG TERRORS DENIED DESERVED VICTORY IN INVERNESS

The U18s travelled to Inverness CT eager to get a full 90 minutes after last Friday's opener was abandoned 17 minutes in due to the freak heavy rain and flooding at the High Performance Centre.

The Young Terrors started strongly, dominating possession and creating chances in a high tempo performance against last year's Performance-Tier League winners.

Largely against the run of play, ICT scored from a wide free-kick as the United defence failed to deal with the physical presence and Eaglesham knocked home.

However, the Young Terrors bounced back immediately. CHRIS MOCHRIE collected the ball from centre, before embarking on a weaving run taking him beyond the Inverness midfield and defence before rounding the goalkeeper and slotting home for 1-1.

The Young Terrors continued to dominate possession and committed bodies forward, creating chance after chance. The good goalkeeping of the home keeper prevented United going ahead.

The home side was showing their resilience also as they hit United on the counter. A United corner quickly became an ICT breakaway, and the back-post cross was knocked home by Eaglesham for 2-1.

Once again though the Young Terrors bravely battled back. An intelligent reverse pass by Shaun Brown found DARREN WATSON, and he buried his effort for 2-2. That scoreline remained as the half-time whistle sounded.

As the second half progressed, United continued to threaten, and NATHAN COONEY headed home from a corner to give the Young Terrors a deserved 3-2 lead.

The willingness to score even more goals proved to be their undoing. As United pushed forward they were again hit on the counter. This time a long ball set Russell away and his lobbed effort found its way into the net for 3-3.

Despite continuing to hunt for the winner their performance deserved, the Young Terrors had to be content with a draw as the full-time whistle blew, ending a largely exciting game.

After the game, Coach Adam Asghar said: "In possession today, the players were excellent showing great bravery to take the ball and dominate for 90 minutes, however, they must learn to manage moments of transition better and deal with physical and direct opponents.

"With our superiority in possession, the game should have been won comfortably in my opinion, but if we don’t take our chances and allow teams to score through poor organisation and set pieces, it will cost us points.

"That is the learning curve the players take away from today’s match and moving forward. The players now have to adopt the same winning mentality as our first-team alongside individual and collective development.”