With a number of players away on international duty and with the first team in action tomorrow, It was a very young Aberdeen team that went down by three goal to nil to an experienced Dundee United side in Peterhead this afternoon. Young Ethan Ross, brother of Seb, made his first start for the U20s and there were debut’s for Tyler Chicken and Jevan Anderson.

The main positive for Paul Sheerin was getting Jamie Henry back onto the pitch after a long injury layoff.

“From Jamie Henry’s point of view it has been a slog this season. It has been really tough for him. He is a boy who loves his football and just wants to get out there and play. So it was really pleasing to get 60 minutes under his belt and hopefully he can kick on between now and the end of the season and get himself fit.”

As for the game itself, the U20s coach was honest in his assessment of the game:

“I thought in the first half they dominated. Their shape went against ours and their two central midfielders ran the game a bit. We asked the back lot to push up at times to try and squeeze the space (in midfield) but we did not do that well enough. It was a hard shift for Jamie but probably what he needs to get his fitness up.

“We changed the shape a little bit which suited us in terms of being competitive and getting closer to them but we never really worked their keeper enough. We never created enough in terms of getting into good areas of the pitch and getting in behind them. They did not create a lot in the second half so I was slighter happier with that and I am not sure if they deserved a 3-0 win. We were better in the second half so I did feel a bit for the boys losing a third one. But it is still three goals conceded and more in the goals against column so that was very disappointing. 

“They had the likes of Sean Dillon, Donaldson, Murdoch; Coote and Robson have also played first team football, so United had a lot more experience and it is good for our younger players to pit their wits against those types of players. Ethan Ross came in and made his first 20s start and we also got Tyler Chicken and Jevan Anderson involved as well.

“Although it is a development league and that is what we preach, it is about developing players, you still do not want to be losing football matches. A club of our stature cannot afford to lose football matches and lose as many goals as we are losing. So we will keep working on that (not conceding goals) and keeping trying to get better at that although we cannot keep point the finger at the defenders. It is a team game and we also need to be doing more at the other end of the field as well.”