Young Reds set for cup showdown in front of huge crowd
NOTTINGHAM Forest Under-18s have already made history in the FA Youth Cup.
And boss Warren Joyce says it would be a “massive achievement” to make a bit more.
The Reds are in the final of the competition for the first time and will come up against 10-time winners Manchester United at Old Trafford tomorrow night.
The occasion is set to see the highest final attendance for the tournament, with more than 62,000 tickets sold – including almost 5,500 to Forest fans.
And while their opponents may be familiar with this particular piece of silverware, Joyce’s charges go into the game on the back of a 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions. They have their eyes on the prize.
“You go into the game to win it. That’s been the theme throughout the tournament,” the Reds boss told the Nottingham Post.
“You know how important it is to Man United, with the history of their football club. But it’s no less important for us.
“To be the first team to win the Youth Cup for Nottingham Forest would be a massive achievement in itself.
“We’ve already achieved one goal, getting to the final. But that’s not enough for these boys. We want to go and win it.
“It’s a boring cliche but we’re not really bothered about them. We’re more bothered about showing the best version of ourselves. That’s the only thing we can control.
“We want to be on our ‘A game’ with and without the ball. Let them worry about us. That’s been the message for nearly every game this season.
“You can track it back. The players know the journey they’ve been on.
“They know the things we talked about at the start of the season. They know how hard it was and the conscious effort we made to not be fearful, to not worry where we were in the league and just to keep going, learn from the mistakes.
“They’ve done that. We’re on a really good unbeaten run. We’ve beaten Manchester City, we’ve beaten Liverpool, we’ve beaten Blackburn, we’ve beaten Everton, we’ve beaten Chelsea, we’ve beaten Middlesbrough. You could go on.
“And we’ve beaten them well, as well. We’ve not been lucky to beat them, we deserved to beat all of those teams.
“That’s why we’re just trying to concentrate on ourselves. Be the best version of ourselves.” ■■Former Nottingham Forest boss Chris Hughton may be about to return to the dugout in the Championship. The ex-republic of Ireland international was in charge of the Reds for just under a year before he was sacked by the club in September.
Hughton has since gone on to take up a role with the Ghanaian Football Association as a technical advisor. He has already overseen success with the national team, who qualified for the 2022 Fifa Men’s World Cup after pulling a surprise win over Nigeria in the play-offs.
It’s been reported this week that the 63-year-old, whose father Willie hailed from Ghana, has been made the association’s technical director but he could be swayed to return to England in the near future.
Blackburn Rovers are considering interviewing Hughton for their vacant managerial post, according to The Sun on Sunday’s paper edition. Tony Mowbray’s time as in charge of the club ended after failing to reach the play-offs.