U16s Club Academy Scotland Cup Final Aberdeen v Heart of Midlothian Sunday 25th November 2018 Balmoral Stadium, Cove. 3.00pm KO Free Entry
This Sunday sees the first of two cup finals for Aberdeen sides in a week as the U16s face Hearts at Balmoral Stadium in the final of the Club Academy Scotland Cup. It kicks off a massive week for the club with the Betfred Cup final the following Sunday, but first attention turns to the final at Cove as the young Dons and Hearts face off for Scottish Cup glory.
It’s been a long and difficult run to the final for Aberdeen starting all the way back in February when they kicked off their campaign against Partick Thistle in the group stage. They would play a further five group matches before overcoming Rangers in the Quarter-Final on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Gavin Levey, Head of Academy Coaching at the club spoke about the journey that has led to Sunday’s final.
“There were four groups of seven or six and we were in a group of six with the top two qualifying. It was tricky getting through and Dundee United went out having only lost once so it just shows you can’t afford an off day.
“It’s an open draw and we ended up with Rangers in the Quarter-Final and were pleased with it being a home tie. We’d played Rangers three times before and drawn every game so nobody had the better of each other. It’s probably the one time this year we’ve prepared the team to have less of the ball and we finished 1-1. It was then a nice way to win on penalties and go through to set up the Semi-Final against Kilmarnock.”
Before the senior team were taking to the field at Hampden for their own Semi-Final, Gavin and fellow coach Robbie Hedderman were down the road at Kilmarnock for the U16 Semi-Final and Calvin Ramsey hit a wonderful strike (Moment Of The Month contender) to ensure a second successive youth final after the U20s reached the Youth Cup Final at Hampden last season.
“We wanted to play it quite low-key that week as we knew there was a story as both Semi-Finals were on the same day. For us we wanted to focus on getting the job done then enjoy ourselves after that, but not too much because we’ve now got to do a job this Sunday.
“We now face Hearts and with Project Brave you end up playing the teams a minimum of three times a year and we probably play one or two times more because we organise additional games against the elite academies. We are familiar with the teams and have had three good matches with Hearts this year and they are a good technical side with some good individuals and they are a forward-thinking academy who’ll be well set up. No matter who you get it’s going to be a tough game at this level.”
With the introduction of Club Academy Scotland, the Scottish Cup presents the academy an opportunity to play in a competitive environment throughout the season and the young Dons have taken advantage of the new structure by booking their place in Sunday’s final. Four of the squad were also away this past week representing Scotland at the Victory Shield in Ireland and Gavin believes competitive football from a younger age will help the players on an international stage.
“It’s still at the early stages, but if they introduced a league at that level, I think the games every week would be far more meaningful and another incentive for players to develop their winning mentality. I’m a big believer of the development week in week out, but if Aberdeen didn’t go to international tournaments and didn’t play against top level European opposition, I don’t think we’d be in a place just now to have so much representation at international level. If we had gone out at the group stage to keep the U16 side in particular we might have lost the edge of the players fighting for a place every week, but because we’ve stayed in the cup, they’ve always had something to play for and the standard in training has been really high, so I think a league would naturally bring that as well.”
This week in particular has highlighted the strength and good work of the AFC academy with ten of its players representing Scotland across all levels. In the senior squad there were call ups and caps for players that have at one time played in the academy including Michael Devlin, Scott McKenna, Ryan Fraser and Stephen O’Donnell.
“At the top end of the academy we’ve seen four boys away with the national team and every young player in the academy should be looking up to these boys as role models that aren’t far away for them. Every member of staff who has had an input into their development over the years can share that bit of pride knowing they’ve given a little bit of guidance to the boys standing and singing Flower Of Scotland.”
The recently opened Balmoral Stadium at Cove has played host to Reserve and U18s fixtures this season and on Sunday Gavin and Robbie will lead their team out for their first national final we are encouraging as many supporters to come along and support the lads onto cup glory.
“The key message is that every one of the boys is local with the furthest travelled being Elgin. They’ve all come through local schools and all played for local juvenile clubs so when we’re talking about sharing pride, this is a chance to be showing pride of the City. You’ve got the first team in the final next week, so this could be a warm up for the supporters to come and see these guys as they don’t see them playing competition. Cove have the new set up and are a club that really want to welcome us for training. We also saw it as a chance to showcase these lads in their local area and get a big support. There seems to be quite a lot of interest, so we want to put on a good show. It doesn’t matter if it’s a U16 final or a senior final everyone here wants to see this club to well.”
Good luck to the players and staff on Sunday and hopefully it’s the first of two trophies heading to Pittodrie in the next week.
