Umbro Galway Cup

The Aberdeen U15s have returned home heroes this week after they won the prestigious Umbro Galway Cup. A last gasp winner from Cameron Smith in the final against Ipswich Town ensured Aberdeen reclaimed the U15 elite title that they last won in 2006 at sunny Drom Soccer Park on Saturday afternoon.

Things were not looking good when the Championship side took a first half lead against the run of play. Adam McKeever left two defenders in his wake on the left wing before crossing for Jacob Marsden to tap home from close range. Aberdeen, though, continued to play their fluent passing game which they had done throughout the competition and Matthew McMahon went close on several occasions in the opening half before he blazed a 33rd minute penalty over the bar. Undaunted, the young Dons continued to press and three minutes later Sligo native Michael Casey raced onto a Smith through ball and he finished with aplomb.

With time running out and the dreaded penalty shootout now looking the most likely way of deciding a winner, Smith, who had an earlier effort ruled out for offside, played a wonderful one-two with Casey and slid the ball beyond Gregor Amos to seal a famous win.

Even getting to the final Aberdeen had to do it the hard way. After they finished second in their group they had to play Group 1 winners the FAI Emerging Talent in the semi final.

The Aberdeen squad was made up on U15 players from the AFC Youth Academy and five players from Ireland. There was also three younger boys invited along to make up a squad of 18. One of the players who came in was Joe Shaughnessy's brother! Young Connor came in when one of the players, David Quinn had to withdraw due to illness the day before the start of the tournament.

Neil Simpson told RedWeb "I thought it was an excellent tournament. The standard was very high as you had teams such as Ipswich, Leicester, the FAI emerging talent which is always a strong team as you have players who want to get into the national team. Cherry Orchard are one of the top teams in Ireland. They had five kids who played for Ireland.

"I told the boys they are at the first stage of hopefully winning a full time contract next summer. With the development games we play the emphasis is on developing players but there becomes a stage where you have to have a winning mentality. This squad won the Aberdeen International Football Festival last year so a lot of them have obviously got that winning mentality.

"Winning high profile tournaments like this in Ireland does no harm when trying to attract kids from the local area and Ireland is obviously a place we monitor on a regular basis as there is a lot of footballing talent."

Aberdeen U15s

Group 2 Scores

Aberdeen V Brommapojknarna Boys (Sweden) 6- 1

(Cameron Smith 2, Danny Mullen 2, Craig Storie 1, Ross Cochrane 1)

Aberdeen V Leicester City 4-2

(Cameron Smith 2 Danny Mullen 1 Mathew McMahon 1)

Aberdeen V Cherry Orchard 0- 1

Semi Final

V FAI Emerging talent squad 1- 0

(Mullen Pen)

Final

V Ipswich Town 2- 1

(Michael Casey 1 Cameron Smith 1)

Man of the Match: Cameron Smith (Aberdeen).

Cameron Smith won the player of the tournament.

The squad who travelled to the game:

Dean Easton, Liam Morrisey,Connor Shaughnessy, Michael Rose, Stuart Hodge, Keir Reilly, Greg Mitchell, Craig Storie, Scott Ferries, Cameron Smith, Danny Mullen, Stuart Close, Ross Cochrane, Conor O,driscoll, Michael Casey, Michael Hunsdale, Matthew McMahon, Connor McCormick

Coaches: Neil Simpson, Colin Walker, Jim McCubbin

Scouts: Colin Grant Bob Mcewan

Aberdeen U15s