Brighton & Hove Albion under-18 striker Danny Cashman says the side know the standards they need to reach once more when they face Everton this evening in the FA Youth Cup.
The young Seagulls contest the fifth round tie with the Toffees at Goodison Park this evening having beaten both West Ham United and Manchester United already in the competition this term, and the forward believes those results have shown the academy and the club as a whole in a positive light.
He said, “We've set the standard after the win over Manchester United in the last round. We’ve worked hard to get to this point and hopefully we can go through again.
“It was a special game – to play like that away from home and to defend the way we did in front of that sort of crowd was quite surreal, but the whole group came out of it really positively.
“It also shows how much progress this club is making with the academy. We’ve had two fantastic results so far in this competition and that really has given us a lot of belief.
“We’ve fought to the end in matches, and the penalty win showed that against West Ham, then the Manchester United game showed we can dig in again.”
Tonight’s contest takes place at Goodison Park, and Cashman considered the differences involved between league matches and the historic cup competition.
“The FA Youth Cup games are a big thing at this level and they’re the biggest matches, there’s a crowd there and you can enhance your reputation.
“The league is about development, and the preparation is different to these games.
“Goodison Park is a historic stadium, and after the two games we’ve played at smaller grounds, this is a really good opportunity for us.
“A lot of us haven’t played in places like that before, so hopefully we can express ourselves like we managed to do in the previous round and get a good result.”
West Bromwich Albion await the winners of this evening’s game in the sixth round, and Cashman emphasised that the side would be underdogs again – something they relish.
“We know who we could face next, and we’ve had one of the hardest draws so far in this competition.
“In a way that’s a good thing, we’ll be the underdogs again and people won’t be looking at us to win, but we will and we all believe in our ability as a group.
“There’s no pressure, hopefully we can keep performing against another world-class side and show what we’re about.”
Tonight’s game will be shown live on YouTube from around 6.45pm.