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Title Winning Young Hoops Six Games Away From An Unbeaten League Campaign

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Image for Title Winning Young Hoops Six Games Away From An Unbeaten League Campaign

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The Young Hoops, who have already secured the Development League title, beat Kilmarnock 1-0 today at Rugby Park, to extend their fantastic unbeaten run to 26 games.

They are now within six matches of an undefeated league campaign.

This would be a truly excellent achievement, and they took a step closer to it today courtesy of a goal from young Ryan Christie.

The stats from this amazing campaign are going to take some beating.

They have won 24 matches over the course, with only two draws – one at home and one away – blotting an otherwise perfect copybook. They have scored 62 goals and conceded only 11. They have accumulated 74 points as of this game, and could yet secure as many as 98.

Their closest challengers are Hamilton, who have played two games more yet trail them by an astonishing 16 points.

This certainly qualifies as winning the title at a canter.

Their next game is against Dundee, at Links Park, on 15 April, and with the title having been secured earlier in the week that unbeaten record is the next goal in their sights.

Tommy McIntyre deserves enormous credit for this season’s performances.

He has rebuilt the team which lost the title last season and not simply turned them into champions but potentially unbeaten champions. Last year’s winners, Aberdeen, are currently fourth. They’ve had a miserable time of it, and have lost eight games and drawn four.

The Development League has gone through various incarnations over the last dozen or so years; it was the Under 20 league for two seasons until 2014, before which it had been the Under 19 league and the Under 18 league before that. Whatever the name, Celtic’s performances over the years have been nothing short of excellent, having now secured six out of the last seven titles.

And in case anyone’s wondering where the Mighty Sevco are in this year’s competition, well they presently sit 10th, having lost 14 games in a tailspin season which has seen them score 43 times and conceded 46.

In fact, so bad have been their performances that Mark Warburton called for the league to be scrapped earlier in the year.

For all the money Rangers lavished on Murray Park the last five years of the club’s history came and went without them having won a youth league title; their last was in 2007. Needless to say, Sevco have matched that record by failing to win one in theirs.

In the period between then and now Aberdeen and Hibs have won one apiece and Celtic the rest.

Some clubs in Scotland are doing the youth thing right.

Others, not so much.

For all the media hoopla about how Warburton and his coaches are transforming Sevco, there’s not much evidence of it beyond their being able to win the second tier title with a 6-1 spending ratio.

At youth level at Celtic, things are working well, and even if you aren’t particularly thrilled by the number of players who have broken through to secure first team berths (we’re all a little disappointed about how few of them there are, if we’re being honest) you can’t have helped but notice than a large number of our Academy graduates are doing perfectly well at other clubs.

It’s literally a football career making factory up there.

No wonder so many very talented young footballers want to come and play at Lennoxtown.

Whether we go through the season unbeaten or not – and these kids are well capable of it, as we’re all aware – things are definitely looking up for our next batch of young players.

What’s that saying again?

Oh yes; the future’s bright. The future’s green and white.

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