Match Preview - Livingston U18s (A)

By Peter Mackay

“We're giving boys a platform to go and play – this could be the biggest game of their footballing careers to date – or ever.”

That’s the message from Ross County under 18’s coach Gordon Duff ahead of their exciting trip to Livingston to face the Lions in the Scottish Cup quarter-final.

Ahead of the tie on Tuesday which kicks off at 7:00 PM at the Set Fare Arena, Gordon Duff is putting full faith in his young side to achieve a historic result.

He said: “It’s the first time we've ever been in a quarter-final at under-18s, so it's exciting.

“The boys are prepared right, and we've got two more sessions to go, so all being well we will be raring to go.

“We've beaten two elite teams on our way here - Motherwell away from home on their pitch at Fir Park, and then Hibs at their training ground.

“It's been a good journey for the boys, they have done well - I think we’ve played better away from home in the cup than we have at home in the league.”

Livingston’s under-18 side plays in the same league set-up as the County under-18’s, so this makes for a familiar match between two sides who have already clashed this season.

Gordon added: “There are plenty of positives about this and we are looking forward to the challenge of playing Livingston.

“We’re trying to provide an experience for them, playing on Livingston’s first team pitch, we hope we can come across with a positive result.

“We've already played Livingston this season, we know what they are good at, their strength and weaknesses, so we just need to make sure we look after ourselves and hopefully that’s enough on the day.”

Calum Brown, striker for the Staggies under-18 side, has been pleased with the progression his side has made against elite youth teams who play a step up from Ross County.

He said: “They’ve got better quality in the team, but at the end of the day, it comes down to what they do on the pitch, and I think we've topped them both in the games by winning our battles, and we’ve come away better.”

After such positive results in reaching this quarter-final, confidence is high amongst the young Staggies.

Calum said: “We've beaten two elite league teams so I don’t see why we can't go and beat Livingston who are in our league.

“We’ve played them many times, and we had never played Motherwell or Hibs before, so we know what we are going into this time, and I think we can beat them.”

Calum, who joined the Ross County academy set-up aged ten, has been on loan at Invergordon in the North Caledonian League this season – a fruitful loan move which he believes has massively benefitted him as a player.

Calum added: “I think it’s helped a lot, the physical, battling side of the game for sure.

“I’m playing against men in that league, so it’s helped bring that side of my game on and be stronger against people my age group.”

Emphasising how much this match means to him and his players, Gordon finalised: “Since we've come back after Christmas the cup is the focus.

“We are still in the club academy cup as well which is similar to the league cup – we won the group so we are in the semi-finals against Ayr.

“The focus is on that game as well as this quarter-final, and we also want to integrate some of the under-16s up to play with us.

“Ultimately, just now, we are focusing on this cup game – and fingers crossed we can get into the semis.”