WITH a brilliant display of controlled football, Leith Athletic under-17s had their place in the final of the Scottish Youth FA's Scottish Cup more or less booked by half-time in their semi-final clash with Woodside Boys' Club at Penicuik Juniors stadium with the Leith outfit 3-0 in front.
Even then, the Leith team boss, Willie Montgomery, refused to get carried away, and he said: "The job is only half done."
Certainly, that was true but the good young team from Fife did not even manage to score a consolation goal in a more evenly-
contested second half, although Leith were under pressure when they had a player sent off for an off-the-ball incident picked up by an assistant referee.
By that time, Leith were 4-0 in front and, although they were put under a fair bit of pressure in the closing ten minutes of a game well controlled by match referee Stephen Noble (Aberdeen), the Fife side were unable to get the better of top-class Leith keeper Mark Tait.
Leith appeared to take the transition from park football to the lovely stadium in Penicuik in their stride and were perfectly comfortable in this setting. Jason Stevens looked a class player in his role on the right midfield and he was involved in most of the good early moves for Leith.
Stevens fired a shot just wide from a cross delivered from the left by Steven Dignan, another of the good players in this Leith squad.
The opening goal duly came in the 12th minute and it was an absolute beauty, a spectacular Johnny Coleman header from a Darren Lavery corner.
It was all Leith after that and they won several corners to pile on the pressure on the Woodside defence and their over-worked goalkeeper, Kieran Duncan.
Fife No.10 Frank Boyle looked as if he could have caused problems for the Leith defence, but he was closely marked whenever he broke free.
It took a crunching tackle from Leith No.6 Coleman to halt a great run from Rory Harrower, then Dale Burt was off target with a powerful shot that soared over the Leith crossbar.
Woodside also won a free-kick in a good position, but the resultant effort was easily cleared.
There were several heavy tackles from both sides at that stage in the game, but the Leith defence, marshalled by Liam Rafferty, were never really troubled. Kieran Connelly had a half-chance for Woodside but he blazed his shot over the bar from a good position.
Leith continued to impress when they got their flowing passing movements going and they went 2-0 in front with another well-taken goal from the ever-alert Jack Combe. Lavery had the ball in the Woodside net again but the whistle had gone for offside.
The non-stop pressure on the Fife team's goal by Leith paid off again, shortly before the half-time whistle, with Combe netting at the second attempt, from a rebound off Duncan. Trailing 3-0 at the halfway stage, Woodside had it all to do in the second half to get themselves back into the game. They made a good start, too, with an attack that ended when Lee Hatten fired another shot over the bar. Tait, in the Leith goal, was rarely troubled by these wayward shots at his goal.
Stevens continued to shine on the right and he broke away again to send over an inviting cross, but Lavery's header was off target this time.
Another corner on the right produced a magnificent header from Leith No.4 Neil Lowson but the ball crashed back into play off the face of the crossbar.
Leith's fourth goal came from yet another corner on the right and, in a packed goalmouth, it was Lavery who appeared to get the final touch to knock the ball over the Woodside goal-line to make it 4-0.
As the pressure mounted on the Fife goal, Stevens ran on to a tremendous cross-field pass from the left to rifle a shot past the near post. Then Combe had a good strike at goal and, at that stage, it really was a damage limitation exercise for Woodside.
To their credit, the Fife outfit plugged away and they did manage to break away, but their shooting was off target.
Leith gave all their squad a run in the second half and they went close to scoring again, with a Stephen Barrie effort ever so close to going in.
The game was halted when the assistant referee spotted the incident that lead to a Leith defender being sent off with ten minutes to play and that boosted Woodside.
The Fife team threw players forward and Tait pulled off two excellent saves to keep a clean sheet in the Leith goal and, in another Woodside assault, there were frantic scenes in the Leith goalmouth before the ball was hammered away.
The final whistle went with Woodside on the attack again, but Leith were much the better side throughout this game and they can now look forward with confidence to playing in Airdrie United's stadium against Johnstone Burgh in the final in May.
Based on the quality of their play at Penicuik, Leith Athletic look to have a good chance of winning the Scottish Cup.
Leith chairman, Gerry Freedman, said: "It was a great show by the under-17 team and they deserve their place in the final.
"It was a good weekend for Leith Athletic, with our amateur side also going through to the quarter-finals of the Soccer World Scottish Amateur Cup."
Leith Athletic: Mark Tait, Antony Marziban, James Burstow, Neil Lowson, Liam Rafferty, Johnny Coleman, Jason Stevens, Michael Lynch, Jack Combe, Darren Lavery, Steven Dignan, Stuart Lord, Stephen Barrie, Chris Barrie, James Robson, Scott Sime.
Woodside: Kieran Duncan, Michael Moir, Dale Burt, Lewis Hendry, Rory Harrower, Sam Gillespie, Lee Hatten, Raymond Low, Kevin Goodwin, Frank Boyle, James Rushford, Mark Westwater, Kieran Connolly, Alan Weir, Ryan Grey.
Referee: Stephen Noble. Assistants: Stuart Morrison, Graham Davies and Angus Brady.
The full article contains 1023 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
