Couple points to the club.

After going to watch a couple of reserve games recently I went to check the SFL site to see how they are getting on league position wise, pretty pleased that the lads are more than holding their own which is good.

After checking the reserves I had a look at the under 19 results and league position, very surprised to see that at this stage of the season the 19's are 2nd bottom of the league with only 1 point. Should this be a cause for concern?
After all, these lads will be stepping into the first team sooner or later. Is this a complete new group of players or as I would have thought it would be the same group that moved up from the previous year? Not having a go here but it is a concern.

Also is there any other news on news on the other age groups, as to how they are getting on etc as there never seems to be any updates etc

Cheers
Sandy

I think, for some age groups, they try to keep the scores quiet as they want it to be about just trying to get the players to pick up the rudiments of the game rather than worrying about being competitive or keeping score.

Or, I might be thinking about our first team, of course.

the 19s are in the most 1st year 19s(17) and there are two that are only 16 and four the correct age 18, these lads are playing against teams each week which are all mostly 2nd year 19s which accounts for most of their results, add to that almost all the teams they play against contain lads who are either playing or training with their respective 1st teams again another reason for their position.

There are a good few lads who are decent prospects in the 19s and hopefully they get the chance to show what they can do.

Is it a case for concern that they are not being given a chance perhaps, is it a case for concern that the reserves are full of 1st team players when most other clubs are playing 19s, perhaps a false league position given that it has been 1st team players in almost every reserve game??

Get along to Kingskettle the next time they play and see for yourself!

Might i explain as Youth Director, This season we have the following teams U14S,U16/17S THIS GROUP IS DUAL BANDED meaning a mix of the two age groups, U19S AND A full Time Squad of 12 apprentices.

The Apprentices are the ones mainly who should be pushing thru over the two years they are contracted, but if a 19s or for that matter a 16/17 was considered doing enough i would hope they would be given a chance.

We dont often report on the 14s as this is about developing our younger ones they have over half the team of new players this season with very good new coaches at this level, these lads have the structural chance to go all the way thru to full time football.
The 16/17s have part new coaches and are performing very well also,we are setting up our youth website to report better on all the groups,events,etc.

The current 19s further to your posts please remember these lads are in the scottish cup last 32 on Sunday away to Ayr Utd having already put out premier league opponents namely Motherwell fc which boasted all full time players in their squad, this young 19s squad can develop together for around three years allow them the opportunity with the good coaches to do so.

Finally to the full time lads of 12, they started in July and all but two of them have progressed thru the two years prvious of the youth set up.
The entire youth set up is very young and a five year plan was put in place,we are already at least a year ahead of the plan It is also SELF FUNDED

to give the fan out there an idea of this it will cost £110,000 to run this season alone, i think a lot of credit to all the persons involved that make this happen is due to the extent the youth programme just recieved the Kingdom Hero Youth Initiative award in September proudly displayed in reception at the club.

There would be nothing better than to see our young players breaking thru to the first team, not my place to comment on this as i am not a coach but at least six are regularly playing in the reserves and one has been in the first team squad all this season so far until a recent injury curtailed this.

i believe in a difficult season at the moment, we need not to put too much pressure on the younger players let them be coached well and develop in the good way they are at this time and we will see ahat the coaches and players efforts can achieve, THANK YOU Brian McNeill

Hi Brian thanks for the reply Brian I really appreciate it.

Can I just state that I wasn't having a go at the under 19's, I was merely addressing my concern due the position etc of their league standing, but now knowing of the actual set up in regards to the age of the players etc then it is pretty understandable. I also appreciate that all involved within the youth set up do a great job and keep it up, actually read the article when the youth set up was awarded a few weeks back.

But it is good that you have updated us in terms of all if not all of your points, im sure there are alot more fans in the same boat as me in terms of knowing little much of the youth side of things. In regard to one of the earlier posts when I was asked to ''Go and watch the 19's for myself''......I would do, and I intend to do so as I am very much interested. It would be good though if this side of things was updated a bit though on the websites so that people can go and watch when possible as im sure there are others that would like to watch a couple of games