Penicuik Athletic playing "the right way" as the Under 16 League Champions get ready Cup Final

Penicuik Athletic are playing football “the right way” believes Head Coach Steven Clarke as the team head into the Scottish Cup Final following their league success.

A 6-4 victory against rivals Musselburgh Windsor on Saturday ensured that the youngsters finished their campaign as Champions with four games to spare. Their attention will now be focused on their final next weekend where they face Giffnock SC at Ochilview stadium. Clarke believes that the club’s emphasis on their playing style has helped to earn their results as well as getting noticed.

“We have been building this up for the last few years”, he explained. “I will always remember a good few seasons ago one of the coaches who was with us at the time said you are just a small team, you will never attract players, you are not like Hibs, Spartans or Boroughmuir. We have now attracted quite a few players from outside Penicuik.

“It just shows if you play football the right way you start to get noticed. That’s what we believe, we don’t play hoof-ball. We won the league last year unbeaten as well in the second division. We have carried that onto this year and added two or three really good players, won every game in the league and got to the final of the cup. It’s fantastic, the girls are loving their football. Everybody likes to win but at the same time we are doing it playing the right way.”

The team are currently on a 16 league game winning run heading into the final

With the club being based in the relatively small area, the progression of the academy has done exceptionally well on its journey through the cup knocking out teams such as St. Mirren and Dundee United on their way to the final. Such victories have helped increase the prestige of the club as well as showing off the ability the girls possess. Clarke is “proud” of the progression the girls have shown of the course of the season and hopes they will be rewarded next week.

“I am incredibly proud of where they came from over the last few years and the core of the team has stuck with us,” he told Edinburgh Evening News. “The fact they are taking on board what the coaches are showing them and listening. The girls turn up and they are on it. It’s been brilliant seeing their progression there is no doubt, but pride is my overarching word towards these girls.

“The final will take care of itself. I’m chuffed to bits to be in it deservedly and I will be telling the girls that. Every team we have beaten have their own girl’s academy with hundreds of kids. It would be great to win but what we have achieved so far is fantastic. I think we will do very well in the final, but I don’t want to forecast anything. If they can control their nerves, they will give themselves a really good shot and all the work we have put in over the last few years will come to fruition.”