Scottish U/19 Youth Cup 3rd Round, Sunday 11th November 2007

Whitehill Welfare 4 Ross County 2

Whitehill under-19s beat Ross County 4-2 in a stunning third-round clash in the SFA Scottish Youth Cup at Ferguson Park in Rosewell. And now the Midlothian squad can look forward to an even bigger test when they host Rangers in the fourth round.

On a freezing cold afternoon the spectators at Ferguson Park were treated to an electrifying game of football - with the home side going 2-0 ahead in a white-hot start that stunned Ross County.

Top-class match official Alan Hogg correctly awarded the home side a penalty in the seventh minute when Scott Moffat was hauled down in a run into the Ross County box, and Bobby Gay made no mistake from the spot-kick to put Whitehill 1-0 up.

In the 14th minute, the blistering pace set by the home side produced another goal, Stephen Pudledski doing the hard work with a superb run and cross for Paul McDermott to hammer home Whitehill's second.

Ross County managed to halt the runaway Whitehill train and they got their Scottish Cup bid back on track, playing glorious short-passing football. Michael Finnis then finished off a wonderful move with a raging shot past home keeper Ross Moffat to make it 2-1 - and there were still only 17 minutes on the clock.

The visitors really clicked into gear after that boost and the naturally-gifted Scott Hadden was superb. Playing behind the strikers, he was involved in many of the wonderful passing moves. At that stage, Whitehill's early two-goal blast looked as if it would not be enough, but the home side lifted their game again and Rennie again tested the County keeper Matthew Curtis with a rising shot.

Whitehill had the ball in the net again, but linesman Peter Peace had his flag up for off-side before the ball hit the back of the net. But a further goal was only delayed and Whitehill went 3-1 ahead with a thunderbolt of a shot from a free-kick taken by the brilliant Shaun Harrison in the 30th minute. More goals looked to be on the cards with two such positive, attack-minded teams in action and it was the Ross County contingent who were celebrating when Hadden showed all his wonderful skill with a brilliantly conceived shot that found the net through a ruck of players in the Whitehill goalmouth.

County kicked off the second half in fantastic style too and Whitehill were made to chase the game - but they recovered their composure, helped by their quite incredible levels of fitness, effort and no lack of skill.

In another dramatic change in fortunes, Whitehill keeper Moffat felled the in-rushing Allan for a stonewall penalty. Moffat, who was lucky to stay on the park, then went from zero to hero for Whitehill by going down to his left to save Hadden's spot-kick and he then got up to launch a tremendous clearance back up the park.

The visitors were caught out and when the ball was delivered into the County goalmouth, Scott Moffat showed wonderful composure and control to sweep the ball past Curtis and take the scoreline to 4-2 in Whitehill's favour.

That 73rd minute goal made it game, set and match to the Midlothian club. However, the remaining time left to play was incredible with the tempo, if anything, going up a few more notches.

Ross County missed another penalty in the closing minutes of the game - after Moffat had felled another player in his box - prompting Whitehill Welfare's long-serving official Derek Waterson to say: "It is definitely Whitehill's day!"

This win for Whitehill Welfare ensures they will be a seeded team along with all the top professional club outfits in next year's national event run by the SFA.

Ross County left Ferguson Park with praise from all directions, including Welfare's senior team boss Raymond Carr, who said: "The quality of their play was absolutely outstanding. They are a real class outfit with wonderful first touches on the ball."

Whitehill Welfare: Ross Moffat, John Barclay, David Arthur, Steven Campbell, Ross McWilliams, Robert Gay, Shaun Harrison, Mark Turnbull, Kieran Dodd, Gavin Campbell, David Doig, Mark Moncrieff, Stephen Pudledski, Daniel Rennie, Scott Moffat, Paul McDermott, Ewan Vallance, Graeme Young.

Ross County: Matthew Curtis, Graham Girvan, Michael Finnis, Scott MacAngus, Grant Campbell, Steven MacDonald, Lloyd Murphy, Scott Hadden, Adam Naismith, Lewis Jenkinson, Daniel MacLeod, David Allan, John Cameron, Daniel Bell, Mark Lamont, Ross Grant.

Referee: Alan Hogg. Assistants: Paul Hanlon, Peter Peace.

Report courtesy of Ian Mackay