City youth reach semi final

Last updated : 18 April 2005 By Joe Mackay

The tournament was to be held at Blackburn Rovers academy and we were to play representative teams from all over England and Wales, most of our opponents had players who were with big Premiership and Championship teams.

Twelve lads made the long trip down to
Blackburn early on the Friday morning (the day before the tournament) along with the three coaches. When we arrived we took the lads for a walk to stretch their legs and get over the journey. Whilst walking we met lady called Sylvia who looks after the first team training facility. She offered us the chance to visit the first team training facility, which is normally not open to the public. We were given access to the boot room, used the gymnasium (briefly) and were given free access to all other areas. We were also shown all around the academy and had a brief knockabout on the indoor pitch.

The hospitality we were shown was second to none and were made to feel most welcome by everyone we met.

The football started early on the Saturday morning with the Elgin youngsters playing the first match of the day. The lads played brilliantly through the group stage and made it through to the semi final. The semi-final was a tough encounter with Elgin eventually losing out on penalties. We only conceded one goal all day (apart from the penalties) and scored nine. During the group matches we won five games and lost one. We were very unlucky in the semi and actually played the better football.

One of the Elgin players of the day was local lad Scott Dunn, who, in spite of an ankle knock played in every game and put up a great performance at left back.

We showed how high our standard of football was when three of our lads had their names taken by the Blackburn scouts, and they will be watched again in our forthcoming matches.