With Cupar Hearts 6-2 over Pollock Juniors on Saturday three Fife teams have won their way through to their National Finals.

Dunfermline Athletic v Celtic

Kelty Hearts v Linlithgow Rose

Cupar Hearts v ??????

Not a bad effort considering the number of teams that enter the last two.

A winning treble there maybe!!!!

Madras College U/18's lost Knightswood Secondary in the Scottish Schools Shield Final at Hampden by 4 goals to 3.
Buckhaven High School U/14's or U/15's are in the final of the Scottish Schools Shield.

Cupar Hearts play Drumchapel

Spoke ti Stevie Hutchean through the week.He plays fer Cuper.Told mi the last time he played at Hamden,he scored an own goal in a 3-1 win over Q.P.

I went to the Madras v Knightswood final. Madras were unlucky and lost out to a more physical team. Despite coming from the St Andrews and Taybridgehead areas, 3 of the Madras team are on the books of the Rovers and at least 1 other is playing for Cowdenbeath. The team captain, Jamie Mackie had a great game. He is with the Rovers and was brought on for the last 15 minutes of their game against Morton recently and I am sure he is still only in 4th year.

I know the under 19s are doing fantastically well, but I wish we had a better system of developing all of the local kids.

That's quite a sad state of affairs.

Who knows how many talented youngsters have slipped through our fingers in the last few years.

We need to really step up the pace with this and also build on the under 19's success by introducing a reserve team.

THE ROVERS HOLD TRIALS EVERY YEAR FOR PLAYERS AS YOUNG AS 12 YEARS OLD TO SPOT POTENTIAL TALENT, THEY ALSO SEND OUT LETTERS TO ALL THE BOYS CLUBS IN FIFE TO GIVE THE BOYS A CHANCE TO PLAY AT A HIGHER LEVEL. ROVERS HAVE AN EXCELLENT YOUTH POLICY WITH UNDER 13'S , 14'S , 15'S , 16'S & 17'S ALL IN PLACE, IT PAINS ME TO SAY THIS , BUT AS A FIFE FAN WE ARE MILES OFF THE PACE.

Well said Gof un St.Moan

East Fife have if different tactic when it comes to a youth policy. We wait to see who's good enough for the Rovers then offer them higher wages, embarrassing but effective.

we used to have a youth policy until Dave Clark came back,his words were something like I can tell if a boycan be a football player after 10 mins or something simular

You're doing some very hard working people a disservice with these comments chaps! The Junior Supporters Club have kids a young as 6 playing in EF colours every week! The 12,13 & 14 year olds are now playing in competitive leagues & are doing ok. There will eventually be someone who comes thro but don't belittle whats is being done at the younger age level.
There is a gulf up to the Under 19s & that does need looked at seriously.

Liam, they've got to moan about something! It's in their blood! Moaning b'stds!

Liam, have to apologise. I have re-read my post and it does read like I am having a dig at all efforts to bring through kids. That's not want I meant. As I have said in other threads, I would love us to have an under 17s as well as this would help bridge the gap. From speaking to people like Gordon Forrest, I know that the JSC is light years ahead of many other Clubs. We should be proud of the fact that they not only want to bring on all of the best kids, but are there for all kids, who just want to play football.

The Madras example is just one of things where I get frustrated about East Fife. Seeing flyers lying about with "Celtic in the community" doesn't help either.

The only way I see EF atracting the "older" kids is for us to have a full time Community Coach working out of Bayview. Don't think this would be on the cards for a while yet! Plastic pitch might help!!

There is an EFJSC 91's team, so there are kids at 15/16 year old coming through right now. The Young Fifers, have a really great set up and as Liam says, the people running it are doing a fantastic job.

For those who don't know much about the EFJSC go to -

www.eastfifejsc.co.uk/

This is some information about them on the site -

The East Fife JSC (Young Fifers) were started to give local Levenmouth youngsters the chance to become more involved in supporting their local team - East Fife FC. We started from nothing in 1999 and now have almost 150 members aged 6-16, both boys and girls.

Our members soon made it clear that they wanted to do more than simply just watch football, so many other activities have been introduced including coaching, playing 7 a side games against local school sides, participating in football festivals and visiting opposing clubs.

This has rapidly developed in recent years hence our coaching sessions have become an essential part of East Fife JSC because of the increasing numbers. We now have 8 coaching sessions with a total of 270 kids per week.

The club's coaching sessions are initially set up to give every child in the Levenmouth area a chance to learn and play football in a safe and fun enviroment regardless of their personal ability.

All our coaches at all training sessions are qualified S.F.A coaches and have all relevent Disclosure and First Aid certificates.

Anyone fancy a trial for the under 91's????

THE WORK PUT IN BY THE VOLUNTEER COACHES AT EFJSC IS FANTASTIC AND IN NO WAY WAS I HAVING A DIG AT THEM, THEIR SET UP IS SECOND TO NONE, HOWEVER HOW CLOSE DO EAST FIFE FC WORK WITH EFJSC? FROM UNDER 13,S TO UNDER 15'S EFJSC PLAY IN THE FIFE DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE, THEN FROM UNDER 16'S THE FIFE LEAGUE WHICH IS COMPETITIVE YES, BUT ROVERS YOUTH TEAMS ARE PLAYING AGAINST OTHER TOP SCOTTISH TEAMS EVERY WEEK WHICH BRINGS THEIR PLAYERS ON NO END. THE POINT I AM MAKING IS EAST FIFE FC COULD BE DOING A LOT MORE ON YOUTH POLICY.

So that is how the Rovers are one of the top teams in Scotland then?? Naaah!

NO BUT THEIR YOUTH SET UP IS DIPSHIT

HEY RABHAW TAKE OF YOUR BLINKERS MATE.

Hey, St Moan, take off yer Caps Lock, mate.

So you St Moan, think the EFJSC DON'T do a good job then?