First Team
THE TANGERINE ARMY | PARTICK THISTLE (H)
23rd April 2024
Ryan Moon’s Young Terrors returned to action after a four-week break for the final CAS Under-18s Elite League fixture of the year, Links Park the venue for a clash with Rangers. The Gers were the first team to inflict defeat on the under 18s this season as they ran out 3-1 victors in the driving rain at Auchenhowie, Fin Malcolm on target from the spot for United.
Two changes were made to the side that snatched a late winner against Motherwell, Bryan Mwangi and Dom Naglik dropping to the bench as Leyton Bisland and Fin Malcolm returned to the squad, United deploying a 4-2-3-1 with the ball and 4-4-1-1 when out of possession.
Rangers opted for a 4-3-3 but left a massive gap between the forwards and the rest of their side, with eight players inside their own defensive third when trying to play through the host’s mid-block.
With just nine seconds on the clock, the Young Terrors caught their opponents napping and took the lead through Stuart Heenan. United took kick-off and rolled the ball back to Arron Donald who lofted a pass over the extremely high Rangers line for the winger to latch onto and stroke the ball under the onrushing Jack McConnell.
Malcolm managed to connect with Heenan’s cross three minutes later, but the delivery was slightly too far behind him to divert on target.
Following the goal, Rangers went in search of an equaliser almost instantly, turning the game into an end-to-end affair with chances flowing for both sides.
Composed play from Semple allowed him time to find Lindsay, who operated mainly from the left half-space, and the midfielder struck a dipping effort narrowly wide of Ruaridh Adam’s post.
Lindsay was at the heart of more positive forays forward for his side, this time threading the ball through the gap between Donald and Sam Lovie for a blue shirt to collect and drill across the area. The United defence struggled to clear and the ball dropped to Graham whose shot was then blocked expertly by Keir Bertie. The danger wasn’t over yet, with the loose ball falling perfectly for Lindsay to strike from 15 yards. However, Bisland matched his colleague’s intervention, throwing himself in front of the shot to prevent Rangers from drawing level.
United broke from this chance for the Gers, Bisland found by Miller Thomson as he strode forward, and he then switched to Heenan. Bisland continued his run and met Heenan’s delivery on the penalty spot, failing to generate enough power to trouble McConnell between the sticks though.
Left-back Lovie managed to split the compact Rangers defence with a perfectly weighted through ball to Heenan down the left channel, who then crossed towards Malcolm. The 17-year-old managed to get a shot in on the slide which was thwarted by the recovering Semple unfortunately for United.
Rory MacLeod’s first involvement of the afternoon saw him receive from the left and opt to shoot wide from the top of the D rather than utilise the numerical advantage.
Just three minutes later, Rangers levelled the arrears. Mackenzie Strachan’s corner drifted all the way to the back-post unchallenged, leaving Robbie Ure with the simplest of tasks to bundle the ball over the line from point-blank range.
Lindsay continued to cause United problems, slipping an identical pass into the right channel once more, this time for the advancing Graham to cut the ball back to Ross Wilson who made up ground on the burst into the area. The midfielder found himself completely unmarked but fired inches wide of the near post.
Graham picked up the ball on the opposite side of the pitch on the stroke of half-time, sending a deep cross to the far-post for Wilson who spurned another chance by bulleting his headed effort straight at Adams in the United net.
The second half failed to produce as many opportunities, although United controlled the majority of possession, easily breaking the first line of the Rangers press but failing to pick the lock when faced with a compact midfield and defence who kept a relatively high engagement line.
The visitors threatened on the counter, Graham spinning away from both Bertie and Lovie just inside the United half and finding the feet of Wilson after carrying the ball towards the United box, his tame effort from 20 yards collected by Adams without breaking sweat.
Lindsay was perhaps the recipient of his side’s best chance to take all three points back to Glasgow, again United failing to deal with a set-piece, Strachan’s corner dropping at the feet of the number eight who wastefully blasted over the crossbar on the edge of the six-yard box.
Lewis O’Donnell had three shots from distance as the clock began to tick down, first firing straight down the throat of the keeper with a speculative effort from range, then curling a free-kick in a promising area into the terracing behind the goal, finally forcing a save from McConnell with a dipping right-footed strike which was pushed to safety by the Rangers stopper.
The final opportunity fell the way of Lindsay once again after Ure prodded the ball through the legs of a United defender, his bending effort too central to trouble the keeper.
A point a relatively fair reflection of a thoroughly entertaining match at a frosty Links Park, the Young Terrors now with a break until the 14th January when the CAS Under-18s Elite League returns with a trip to the capital to take on Hibernian.
