Preston Lodge 1 George Watson’s 1

Preston Lodge win 5-4 on penalties

YOUNG footballers from Preston Lodge High School won the U16 Lothian Schools Cup final after a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over George Watson’s.

Preston Lodge started well at Spartans’ Ainslie Park and Jack Main had the first effort for the county youngsters.

Watson’s began to grow into the game and Rory Stephen tested PL keeper Connor Currie.

The Edinburgh schoolboys continued to press and opened the scoring on 12 minutes when Jack Carr curled the ball past Currie at the second time of asking.

PL pushed to find an equaliser but were unable to break down the Watson’s defence and the Edinburgh side held a 1-0 lead at the break.

The youngsters from PL again started the brighter after the break and within a couple of minutes they were level. Watsons failed to deal with a long ball and Main capitalised to score the equaliser.

The second half was a far more cagey affair than the first had been but PL had the better chances to win the cup in the final five minutes.

Main was wasteful on two occasions before Daniel Mair fired wide late on as the match went to a penalty shoot-out.

Mair atoned for his injury-time miss by slotting home the first spot kick.

Keeper Currie was then the hero, saving from Rory Stephen to hand the advantage to PL, who then had Ben Tracey, Main and Billy Stewart all convert from 12 yards.

That left Calum Stevenson the task of finding the net to clinch victory and he delivered with a superb spot kick as PL clinched the trophy.

The winning PL squad was: Connor Currie, Ewan Ford, Tommy Doran, Sam Bird, Ben Jenkinson, Daniel Mair, Billy Stewart, Lewis Fitzpatrick, Ben Tracey, Jack Main, Finn Higgins, Byron Archibald, Calum Stevenson, Nathan Muir and Zak Johnstone.