YOUNGSTERS WILL NEED TO BE AT BEST IN FA YOUTH CUP

THE good news is that Stoke City under-18s showed with a brilliant win over Manchester City at the weekend that they should not be afraid of taking on anyone.

The bad news is that they probably have to prove it with a tricky FA Youth Cup fourth round draw away at highlyrated Blackburn Rovers. Stoke booked their place in this stage by coming from 2-0 down to win at Norwich last week, with goals from Shilo Waldo, Sam Knowles and Jack Griffiths.

England youth striker Emre Tezgel scored both on Saturday in the 2-0 victory over Man City, who are second in the under-18s Premier League to Blackburn. Blackburn have won seven and drawn two of their 10 league games so far and Harry Leonard has scored eight times in his seven appearances. Stoke, who have been sending their under-18s to play in the under-23s, are down in 12th. The two clubs met in this competition four years ago, with Blackburn coming out on top 2-1 at Ewood Park. John Buckley, from that Blackburn side, is now starring for their first team. Lewis Thompson is at Scunthorpe, Sam Barnes is still with their under-23s, Jack Vale - currently on loan at Halifax - and Dan Butterworth have had to deal with injuries. Ben Paton is at Ross County. From the Stoke team, Will Forrester is currently on loan at Mansfield hoping to make his Stoke breakthrough, Lasse Sorensen has joined Lincoln, Nathan Collins had a move to Burnley and Tyrese Campbell is one of the most important players in Michael O’neill’s first team squad. The draw was made this lunchtime and ties will be played before mid-january.