Young 17’s Draw With Hearts

Rangers 1 Hearts 1

A Rangers squad made up of almost exclusively U16 and U15 players completed the U17 fixtures with a draw against Hearts at Murray Park tonight. I’m not sure of the age profile of the Hearts team but they appeared to be a bit older on average.

The game had an end of season feel to it and there were few chances over the ninety minutes with a draw being a fair result. Rangers took an early lead after eight minutes, when the Hearts keeper miss kicked a clearance Lewis Morgan found the net with a superb controlled first time finish from around twenty-five yards.

The remainder of the half was fairly even with neither side troubling the goalkeepers until the visitors equalised from the penalty spot in the final minute. When the Hearts player broke into the box through the middle Ross McCrorie was rather harshly judged to have fouled the player and a penalty was awarded which was duly converted past his brother Robbie McCrorie in the Rangers goal.

Half-Time:- Rangers 1 Hearts 1

The second half followed a similar vein with chances limited, just over ten minutes into the half Ryan Hardie collected a long ball and turned a defender at the edge of the box but his effort on goal was easily dealt with by the Hearts keeper. The visitors came close to taking the lead with five minutes remaining, from a free-kick just outside the left hand side of the box the ball was sent over the defensive wall and rebounded from the crossbar with Robbie McCrorie beaten.

The young Rangers side, which by this stage included seven U15 players came close to winning the game in the final minute. Ben Reilly won the ball on the right side of the box and burst into the area, his shot was parried by the Hearts keeper and when Josh Jeffries fired the rebound towards the net the keeper showed great reactions to turn the ball over.

Full-Time:- Rangers 1 Hearts 1

Rangers:- Robbie McCrorie; Steven Chatterton (Josh Jeffries 57mins), Ross McCrorie, David Brownlie, Chris McDonald (Lewis White 75mins); Lewis Morgan (Ben West 73mins), Adam Wilson, Junior Ogen (Max Ashmore 60mins), Sam Liddington; Ben Reilly; Ryan Hardie (Jamie Brandon 70mins).