Dundee United 1 - 3 Aberdeen

Clydesdale Bank Youth League

Dundee Utd U19s 1 Aberdeen U19s 3

Two goals from Cammy Smith and one from Declan McManus gave the young Dons a comfortable win this afternoon at St Andrews University. The Manchester United squad were training on the pitches nearby. Even they would have been impressed by Neil Cooper's side today.

The Dons opened the scoring after 8 minutes when Ryan Fraser played a great through ball in behind the United defence. Declan McManus made a great run to get away from his marker and he finished well. Shortly after that United had a chance to equalise when their striker was through one on one but Danny Rogers did brilliantly to get out quickly, narrow the shot and make a good block.

The Dons then went two up from a corner. Stephen O'Neill played the ball in and Michael Dunlop headed it against the bar. From the rebound Cammy Smith was the first to react and put the ball over the line.

McManus was then unlucky not to score but he put a shot just wide.

Just after the interval Cammy Smith grabbed his second and made the game safe. Craig Duguid played a good ball forward which Cammy latched onto. The striker did really well to create an opening and finished well in the corner. Aberdeen could then have gone on and won the game by an even bigger margin. Stephen O'Neill had a couple of shots from distance, including one superb effort from 35 yards which rattled the bar.

In the last few minutes Aberdeen were denied a stonewall penalty when McManus was pushed off the ball from behind. United then got a consolation through Moore after some sloppy defending from the Dons.

Despite losing the late goal Neil Cooper was very pleased with the performance. "I thought we played really really well today. We could easily have scored another two or three goals. I thought Michael Dunlop and Conor Devaney were superb today, especially after hearing the disappointing news yesterday. It says a lot about their attitudes"