Brighton & Hove Albion joint under-18 coach Mark Beard hopes his side can emulate history tonight when they face Everton at Goodison Park in an FA Youth Cup fifth round tie, kick-off 7pm.
A win would see Albion progress to the sixth round for only the second time in the club’s history since facing Newcastle United in a quarter-final tie in 2006, and Beard looked ahead to another wonderful occasion for his squad.
He said, “If we get into the quarter finals, then it will be just the second time the club has got that far, so there’s a bit of history involved for us.
“Goodison Park is an unbelievable stadium and an historic ground. The boys have never played there before, so it will be a great challenge.
“Every game has been hard so far, we’ve had West Ham United, Man United and now Everton, but this is a great game for us as managers and coaches to stick our teeth into.
“We set the players up in a different way compared to a league match; hopefully we get our game plan right again and then it’s up to the boys to deliver on the pitch.”
Beard explained that the approach to the game will not change too much from the West Ham United and Manchester United matches, and the under-18 joint coach is looking for another disciplined performance from his side.
“We’ll probably be the underdogs again, but as long as we play like we did against West Ham and Man United, then we’ll give ourselves a chance.
“The boys implemented the game plan very well for the Man United match, so we’ll do exactly the same for Everton and won’t leave any stone unturned.”
“They’re very technical and look to play out from the back. They were 2-0 up in the last round against Stoke, and Stoke came back to make it 2-2 before it went to penalties.
“The last round was very tough for them, and we’ve highlighted a lot of weaknesses where we can get at them, but they’ve got some very good attacking players as well.
“It all just comes down to how we perform on the night.”