Ards Colts manager Lee Forsythe was full of praise for his under 18 side following Saturday's friendly match against the Ards first team.

For although the youths lost the game 5-2, an early goal from Tony Tumelty did in fact put the Colts one up and a Craig O'Neill equaliser squared the game at 2-2 later on in the second half.

Lee Forsythe

Lee was very pleased with his players' attitude, saying, "I was personally very pleased with the performance. It was a major confidence boost to everyone that we were drawing for 25 minutes before running out of steam a bit towards the end."

The Colts have enjoyed a tremendous season, and led their section of the Carnegie Youth League for a number of weeks, although results have begun to tail off recently. Nonetheless games like this one will only be of help to the side, which contains several players enjoying their last year of youth football.

"This game was a good experience for the lads," declares Lee, "It shows them the level they need to be performing at. There was also a great opportunity to perform for Tommy and show him that some aren't a million miles away from first team level. Thomas Gorman and Scott Robbie certainly did that."

In recent weeks Tommy Kincaid has been including a number of Lee's players in his senior panel, which of course delights the Colts boss, who has looked after this core bunch of players since under 16 level. "It's super to see how comfortably another two players still eligible for the under 18s fit in with the first team in Ryan Newberry and Gary Sharratt. From what I've seen both clearly deserve to be there."

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