Summer Football at The Academy

The Ayr United Football Academy have been busy in the past few weeks with plenty of action to discuss from under 19 players making the step up to the full squad to the under 13 girls winning the first silverware of the season.

Wooburn in action

Hopefully everyone is aware of the good work that the Football Academy coaches are doing, and if you are not, just look at the current crop of players making the move into the full squad playing week to week under boss Brian Reid. The match against Airdrie at Alloa's Recreation Park was an example of the Academies work in action.

Jonathan Tiffoney

Alastair Woodburn, who has been a regular in Ayr's full squad for some time now, trail blazed the way for the rest of the youths and showed what can be achieved if you put the work in and listen to the experienced coaching staff that the AUFA have in place.


Jonathan Tiffoney has had a regular starting spot this season so far, and has been joined by Ross Robertson and Aaron Connolly, all of whom are now registed Ayr United players. All three of these guys have been getting plenty of playing time on the field. Also pushing for regular starting spots are Roddy Paterson who played in the 2nd half against Airdrie, as well as Ian Fisher and goalkeeper Daryl Jones who are all contracted Pro Youth Academy players.


If these guys keep up the hard work that has got them recognised so far by Brian Reid, there can be no doubt, they will all be playing regular first team football before long.


Although making the step up, most of these guys are still learning their trade and are required to play for the under 19 side. The most recent outings for the 19s came last weekend at the Hurlford Tournament where they played 2 matches over 2 days losing out on day 1 to Knockentiber but defeated Muirkirk Juniors 3-0 on day 2 with goals from Dale Moore and Scott Johnson.

McMillan

Stephen McMillan, ex of Motherwell and Wigan, who is the boss of the 19s, took 22 players with him to the tournament, playing all of them over the two days.  In the match on Saturday, the players kept possession well against a tough tackling Knockentiber side and boss McMillan was thankful for the players to emerge from the game unscathed. However the win on Sunday was more entertaining. Ayr made 10 changes from the day previous adding Robbie Crawford and Stuart Milligan to the midfield and they pulled the strings in the middle of the park all game, add to this some excellent defending and composure on the ball from everyone involved and you get a very happy boss with a tremendous all round display.


The under 17s have also had a busy time recently playing against SPL opposition twice and English Premiership once in the last 10 days. The match against Newcastle came after a gruelling 3 and a half hour journey and although not winning the match, coach Allan Paul was delighted with the professional performance the team put in against superior opposition. This match was followed by games against an excellent Motherwell side which ended as a draw and only 2 injury time goals for St Mirren stopped the Ayr side from winning that particular match.

JJ Hawkshaw signs on

A few of the under 17s have also been making the step up to the 19s side as the development programme keeps progressing. Over the summer, under 17 captain JJ Hawkshaw signed a ********** contract which ties him to the club for the forseeable future. Celtic had been looking to sign JJ and it shows the ambition of the player that he stayed with AUFA. Couple this with the excellent facilities and superb coaching staff that AUFA have at their disposal, the future looks bright for both the Academy and United.


New Silverware also adorned the trophy cabinet when the under 13 girls managed  to win the Scottish League Cup Plate on 27th June at Toryglen Regional Football Centre.

Check out all news about the Academy at www.ayrunitedfootballacademy.co.uk/

You can also keep track of the comings and goings at their Facebook and Twitter pages.

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