Kilmarnock progress in Scottish FA Youth Cup

Kilmarnock booked their place in round three of the Scottish FA Youth Cup with a last-gasp win over Queen’s Park.

The goals were scored by John-Joe Leddy and Noah Simpson for Kris Doolan’s Under-19s side – which is actually Under-18s as per competition rules.

It was a cagey opening 45 minutes with not much separating the sides as they tried to figure each other out. Killie had the first big chance of the half, as Simpson won a free kick in an attacking area. The ball was swung deep into the box towards Harry McMurray, whose header was guided agonisingly wide of the far post.

The hosts found themselves on the backfoot for a spell as Queen’s Park pushed hard for an opener. Taylor Cunningham did well in between the sticks to keep out multiple attempts from the Queen’s Park front line.

The visitors would open the scoring as the striker received the ball in space and placed his shot low and hard into the bottom right corner, beyond Cunningham.

Killie found themselves with work to do in the second half if they wanted to reach the next round. A tweak to the team’s shape turned out to be vital for Doolan’s team, as they resumed play in a much more positive manner.

Killie came close to levelling the score when a corner was whipped in to Logan Foster, who struck the post with his effort, which was then followed up by Simpson who rattled the bar from close range.

The goal finally came for Kilmarnock, as Cole Bickerton whipped a dangerous corner into the box that was met by Leddy who struck a sweet volley into the top left corner to fire his side back into the game.

Killie found their flow controlling the play for large spells and playing some great football. They looked the most likely of the two teams to find the winner. The front three of Tony Frew, Simpson and Connor Sweeney linked up excellently to carve out multiple dangerous chances for the hosts.

As the minutes ticked down, it started to get heated at Bowie Park as neither team wanted to go to extra time.

In a dramatic finish to proceedings, Killie found the winner on 87 minutes as Bickerton whipped another ball into the box. This resulted in a scramble for the ball, before Simpson managed to squeeze in and poke it home.

As the hosts saw out the cup tie win, Queens Park were reduced to 10 men after their player received a second yellow. The visitors attempted to pile on pressure in the closing moments but Killie dug in and saw out the match to deservedly put their name in the hat for the next round.

By Jamie Hodkinson

Starting XI: Cunningham, Peacock, McMurray, Leddy, Lusk, Feeney, Foster, Bickerton, Sweeney, Simpson, Frew.

Subs: Cumming, Reidford, McInally, J. Orr, H. Orr, Trialist.