Albion host The Foxes in a third round tie at The People’s Pension Stadium tonight, and Beard reflected on the club’s memorable run to the fifth round in 2018/19, which included impressive victories over West Ham United and Manchester United.
He said, “We did so well last year, and have great experiences from playing in this competition. It’s probably the best youth cup competition in the world.
“We’ll approach it in the same way as we do every game, and try not to put any added pressure on the players.
“We want to progress and we set the boys targets at the start of the season, in terms of trying to beat what we did last year.
“We finished fifth in the league last year and now we want to finish fourth. We got to the fifth round of the Youth Cup last year, and this time we want to get to the quarter-finals.
“We said we wanted to qualify out of the group stages in the League Cup, which we’ve done, we’re on target to improve on last season’s position in the league, and now we want to get to the quarter-finals of the Youth Cup.”
Following last season’s fifth round exit at the hands of Everton, Albion’s under-18s only lost one of their next 20 competitive games in all competitions, and Beard spoke of the confidence which the side took from that Youth Cup run.
“They began to believe in their own ability, and went on a good run. We can draw a lot of strength and experience from that, so we would like to go on another good run this year," he continued.
“We’ve played Leicester twice already this season after beating them 2-0 at home and 3-2 away, but it could’ve gone either way. It will be a very close game and we will have to be focused for the whole 90 or 120 minutes, however long it will take.”
The under-18 coach is now urging as many Albion fans as possible to go to Crawley for the game, and cheer on the next generation of Seagulls players coming through the ranks.
“I’d encourage everyone to come down and watch the young talent that’s coming through. A few of the players have had a taster of it in the Carabao Cup, and now is a chance to see the rest of them.
“We want to have a great run, and need as much support as possible. To start your weekend football fix, head to Crawley and cheer the boys on!”