David Longwell's Under 19 side were knocked out of the SFA Youth Cup at the quarter-final stage this afternoon as they went down 1-0 to Aberdeen at the Balgownie Playing Fields in Aberdeen.

The young Saints fought well and came close to breaking the deadlock in the first half but Graeme Ramage's effort was blocked and cleared by the Aberdeen keeper.

Aberdeen grew stronger as the game progressed although it looked as if extra-time would be needed to decide a winner for the match.  But with two minutes left of the regulation 90 the home side scored the winning goal when Joe Shaughnessy forced the ball home from close range after getting on to the end of a corner-kick.

As the game moved into stoppage time Ryan Frances was shown a straight red card for dissent and Jamie McKernon picked up a second yellow card for a late tackle to bring Saints down to nine men and end just about any chance of saving the tie.

St Mirren's Head of Youth Development, David Longwell said after the game "We had a good run in this tournament last year so it is disappointing to be out at this stage.

"We competed well for much of the match but Aberdeen looked a stronger side and had most of the second half - we wish them the best of luck in the future rounds.

"Losing a late goal was disappointing, we just switched off after defending so well up to that point in the game.

"Ryan Frances can have no complaints about his red card which he got for arguing with the referee and Jamie McKernon got a second booking when trying to break the game up.

"It is back to the league on Friday against Motherwell so we have to make sure we pick ourselves up again for that one."

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