FA Youth Cup 4th Round - LIVE Tonight!

SIXTEEN Points Clear
By The Kid
January 17 2006

The Academy are on their travels again tonight with a 4th Round FA Youth cup-tie at the Withdean Stadium against Brighton and Hove Albion. The game is live on Chelsea TV and kick-off is 7.30pm.

As usual there will be LIVE coverage on the message board from 7.30pm with scores, updates and news. Should the Academy win tonight they will play the winners of Blackburn Rovers or Derby County in another away tie. This match is being played tomorrow.

The Academy players and Academy's staff have tried to prepare for this game in the best possible way. Coach Brendan Rodgers explains ""It is a competition that as a young player you are in for two years only, so when you are in it, you want to win it. And when you are at a bigger club, you feel you have a greater opportunity to win it.

"For the young players it is terrific. For me it is interesting to see how they deal with pressure."

Regarding the pressure the Academy did well to recover and beat Norwich in the last round. After going behind to an extremely early goal, the Academy won the game 2-1 through a long range schremer from Harry Worley and an extra-time penalty winner from Scott Sinclair.

Brighton knocked out Port Vale in the last round and in the Football League Youth Alliance South-East Combination table they are in front of clubs like Portsmouth and QPR.

Coach Rodgers said that tonight would be tough. He said ""It will be a tough game. Traditionally Brighton have had players that do come through to first team football.

"We will have studied the opposition, firstly because I want to do it, secondly because I want to give the players an insight into what the manager [José Mourinho] would do.

"I prepare for games as much as I can like he would. We don’t have the same access to watching past youth team games but in terms of team-meetings, preparations, set-pieces, giving them an understanding of who they are playing against, that is similar.

"We talk about the style and shape of the opponents and the ground that they are playing at."

COME ON CHELSEA

40 YEARS A BLUE!