Young Dons lose in extra time

CELTIC 2 ABERDEEN 1 (after extra time)

The young Dons could easily have taken the lead inside ten minutes Scott Wright shrugged off a challenge at the edge of the box and squared the ball where three team-mates were waiting. However, the referee had already blown for a foul rather than play advantage and the chance was gone.

The deadlock was broken in the 25^th minute when a free kick from Celtic’s Mark Hill was only half cleared by Dons skipper Michael Kelly and Jamie McCart took full advantage with a fine finish from eighteen yards.

The Celtic defence were doing a good job in containing top scorer Michael Jones, underlined by the fact his first glimpse of a chance was ten minutes into the second half, a header that did not have sufficient power to trouble Colin McCabe in the Hoops goal.

Mark Hill’s long throws were causing havoc in the Dons defence and keeper Peter Tait was forced into a brilliant stop from Aidan Nesbitt following another massive effort from the left.

It looked like the one goal was going to settle matters but with just a couple of minutes of regulation time remaining, a pinpoint Lewis Dunbar was met perfectly by centre back Bradley Manson, the ball fairly screaming into the net to the joy of the majority of the capacity crowd.

There was still time for Tait to pull off another quality save, again via a Hill throw, the shot this time coming from Ryan Caird.

The first period of extra time failed to produce any concrete chances for either side but inside the opening minute of the restart, Celtic scored what proved to be the winner. There seemed little on when Ciaran Lafferty picked up the ball wide on the left but somehow the substitute, with the outside of his foot, managed to steer the ball beyond Tait and into the corner of the net for a worthy winner.

With family reasons preventing Denis Law himself from attending, former Scotland and Dons boss Craig Brown presented the prizes after what had been an excellent four days of football.

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*Next year’s Denis Law Soccer Tournament could be expanded following positive feedback from the clubs participating this year according to ASV’s Events Manager Fiona Cardwell. “All of the teams have indicated they would like to return in 2014 while a few would like to also bring their 14 and under squads as well so the indications are extremely positive. This was just our third event following the demise of the Aberdeen International Football Festival and it was always our intention to make sure we walked before we ran with the proviso that each year we add a little more.”

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Results

Semi Finals

Aberdeen 5 Dundee 0

Celtic 2 Sunderland 1

3^rd / 4^th place play-off Dundee 1 Sunderland 4

Consolation Cup semi finals

Inverness Caley Thistle 1 Albion 2

Motherwell 1 Sheffield United 2

Final Albion 1 Sheffield Utd 3

7^th / 8^th place play off Inverness Caley Thistle 5 Motherwell 4

Corporate 7’s Final – Aberdeen Sports Village 0 Stena Drilling 1