A St Mirren XI made up mostly of the Under 19 squad took part in the Irvine Meadow Summer Challenge Tournament over the weekend at Meadow Park.
As well as host side Irvine Meadow and the St Mirren XI, Clydebank and a Kilmarnock XI made up the sides for two semi-finals.
The young Saints played hosts Irvine Meadow in the second of the semi-finals that took place on the Saturday, eventually going down 1-0 to the Junior side.
David Longwell’s side played well against Meadow and were unlucky to go into the break on even terms having hit the woodwork twice and being kept at bay by the home goalkeeper.
The home side came out stronger in the second half as they put the young Saints under a lot of pressure – that pressure paid off as they broke the deadlock on the hour mark.
David Longwell’s side kept battling away but a couple of goal-line scrambles kept them at bay allowing the home side to hang in for the win.
On Sunday afternoon the St Mirren XI faced the Kilmarnock XI in the 3rd/4th place playoff match, going on to win 4-1.
In a side that also included three Under 17′s, the boys started well as they worked hard and pressed their opponents. Chances were being carved out so it was no surprise when Saints took the lead through young Jon Scullion. Despite their dominance the one goal lead was all they took into the interval.
St Mirren started the second half as they did the first by taking the game to Kilmarnock and a bit of breathing space was put in place when Mark Lamont scored direct from a free-kick to put Saints two-up.
At this point Killie battled their way back into the game and got a deserved goal but as the Ayrshire side pushed for an equaliser Saints picked them off with Mark Williams scoring to put Saints 3-1 ahead.
Shorlty after it was 4-1 when a great finish by Jack Smith capped of a really good move.
David Longwell said of the weekend, “Despite losing to Irvine Meadow in the Saturday game the boys were excellent and didn’t deserve to lose.
“After last weekend’s games down at Stranraer the boys showed they had learned and they competed a lot better against a strong Irvine Meadow side. Throughout the first half the boys played really good football and deserved to take the lead but they lacked a bit of luck in front of goal.
“I was happy with their performance against one of the top Junior sides and it was a great experience for the young lads against a team of men.
“We started three Under 17 players for the game against Kilmarnock on the Sunday and we witnessed a hard working performance from our boys who also pressed Kilmarnock and played a lot of good football.
“This was generally a good performance and good progression was made from the game against Irvine Meadow the day before.
“The most pleasing part was that over the course of the game we fielded five Under 17 players who all did well.
“We will now be looking to work hard next week as we progress towards our first game of the season against Dunfermline on August 13th.”
