Cumbernauld Colts 1 Kilmarnock B 1

Kilmarnock B’s young side picked up an impressive point in KDM Trophy with a 1-1 draw against Cumbernauld Colts at Broadwood Stadium last night.

Kris Doolan named a young line-up for the Challenge Cup match, with almost the full squad made up of players from the Under-19s squad, with the exception of Ben Brannan is eligible to represent Killie in the competition while out on loan at Queen’s Park. The 19-year-old played at the base of the midfield.

Despite the obvious age gap between the teams on the pitch, our 19s players stood up well to the task, and were able to tap into their experiences against senior sides during pre-season, as planned by Paul Di Giacomo, to help them dig in for a positive result.

A late change to the starting XI saw fit-again Cole Burke – who started on the left – get an hour under his belt in the step up with his recovery from injury, and Noah Simpson wide on the right in support of lone frontman Remo Margiotta – who continued his fine goalscoring form to give the visitors a first half lead.

A cross from deep on the right by Guy Feeney was met brilliantly by the striker, who made a strong connection with his head to divert the ball on target and into the net.

Around 12 minutes later, not long before the interval, Colts equalised through Aiden McLaughlin.

Killie’s young guns pushed to find the lead for a second time, but couldn’t quite manage to secure all three points on the road.

The U19s are back in action against Motherwell next Tuesday, meanwhile, the B team will resume a week later with a trip to Cowdenbeath.

Starting XI: Brown, Feeney, Leddy, Fraser-Traljic, Spence, Brannan, Foster, Bickerton, Burke, Simpson, Margiotta.

Subs: Morrison, Sweeney, Frew, Cummings, Peacock, Orr, McNally, Lusk.