Accies girls beat Celtic to lift Scottish Youth Cup in jubilant scenes at Petershill

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Hamilton Accies Girls’ Under-14s tasted silverware by beating Celtic 2-0 to win the Scottish Youth FA Cup, less than a year after they formed.Goals from Niamh McCulloch and Amelie Connell saw Accies lift the trophy at Petershill Park in Glasgow on Saturday.McCulloch was nominated player of the match by Scottish Women’s Football, and goalkeeper Abbie Burns saved a penalty during the game to keep a clean sheet.Coach Chris Bennett says that was seventh-time lucky for the girls against their illustrious opponents and the whole club is delighted with the win.He said: “That was massive for us.

Twelve months ago the girls were essentially just a regional club, and we decided in January to enter the performance arm of the Scottish Women’s Football pyramid.“We’ve done pretty well, gone through a massive transition and won the League Cup at regional level just before the summer, alongside the Caledonian Cup, which was just a pay-to-enter tournament.“Since we started the league in August we’ve competed quite well against all the big clubs, like Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell, etc, who have considerably more finances and resources than us.“The whole club is buzzing.“We’ve massively over-achieved by winning the Scottish Youth Cup.“It’s the first time we’ve beat Celtic, and we’ve played against them seven times in that 12-month period.“That was the first time we had ever got a positive result against them, though every time the scorelines got closer and closer.”Accies will now enter the League Cup, and Bennett says a structure that has been put in place is paying dividends.He said: “We’re continuing the National Academy programme, which is essentially Pro-Youth, between now and April, and then the League Cup will start,