Kilmarnock v Aberdeen

MATCH: Kilmarnock v Aberdeen

COMPETITION: Youth Cup – Round 3

DATE: Sunday 20th October 2013

VENUE: Rugby Park, Kilmarnock

KICK-OFF: 2pm

Aberdeen U20s beginning their SFA Youth Cup campaign on Sunday when they travel down to face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Despite beating the Killie youngsters 3-0 on Tuesday, it will be a difficult test for Neil Cooper’s side so early in the competition.

We previewed the game with one of the youngsters who has impressed this season. Despite Scott Ferries being a new name to Aberdeen fans, he is from a famous footballing family…..

Scott is the son of former Ross County player and legend in that part of the world Billy Ferries, something the locals are very keen to remind him of as Scott tells us. “I do not like walking through Dingwall because everyone comes up to me to say ‘you will never fill your Dads boots!’ It is a nightmare!!”

Winger Billy really shone for County during the club’s best days in the Highland League in the early 90s. He was also part of the side when they moved into league football in 1994 and was recently voted by the fans to be Ross County’s all-time favourite player.

…”So they say he was the greatest ever player! So they say! I don’t ever remember him playing but I have seen videos of him in action.

…”My dad has been a big influence on my career. He has really pushed me on and also coached me as well. He is as knowledgeable as a lot of coaches I have worked with. It is brilliant to have him helping me. He was also a right winger like me so he knows the position as well as anyone. He was always telling me how to run with the ball, to use both feet and how to cross a ball. I would like to point out that I pass the ball more than he used to!

…”I am from Tain in the Highland and attended Tain Royal Academy. It is about 35 miles north of Inverness. I started my career at the Aberdeen satellite coaching centre in Golspie was I was six. I was coached by a guy called Dave McLeod who was excellent. He is responsible for developing a large number of the young players from the area who are now playing at Inverness or Ross County.

…”I was sent down to Aberdeen with a couple of the other boys when I was about eight and they were keen to keep me on. Unfortunately the satellite centre closed down but George Adams kindly allowed me to train during the week with Ross County and I would then travel down and play for Aberdeen at the weekend.

…”It was my dad who used to have to take me. It was a massive commitment from him. We used to travel down the night before games to break up the journey. So we would travel down and stay in Aberdeen and the next week we would stay in Glasgow. It was a huge financial commitment and took up a lot of his time. I am very grateful to him and all the family for their support. My sisters for example had to give up things because of my football. If it was not for them I would not have made it to Aberdeen.

It has been a strange season for the U20s thus far. After finishing a close second to Celtic in the Youth League last year, this season they have found themselves at the bottom of the table despite drawing with Celtic and beating Rangers away. In that Rangers game Scott scored the first and set up the second in what was a very impressive performance.

…”I thought we played well in the Rangers game. That has been our best performance to date. In that game we all worked hard for each other. Everybody did their job defensively and going forward as well.

…”We have been playing with a back four that contains two central midfielders – Marcus Camapnile and Kieran Gibbons. Craig Duguid has been out injured for a while, Michael Rose has also been out a few times and Scott Rumsby is out on loan so it has been a very makeshift defence. It is therefore important everyone does their defensive duties. Maybe we have also not been creating as many chances as we did last season.”

On Sunday the U20s put the League behind them and they start out on Scottish Youth Cup duty.

…”The cup is always a big thing but maybe even more important this season as we have not started the League well. We want to make sure we can go as far as we can. We have a lot of good players and it is competitive trying to get a game so there is no reason why we can’t turn our season around and hopefully we can go on a good run.”

To read the interview in full buy a copy of redmatchday tomorrow at the game.