U18 Preview: Newcastle vs Saints
Southampton’s youngsters travel to Newcastle United on Tuesday as they look to conclude their Under-18 Premier League Cup campaign with a victory.
Newcastle vs Saints
Under-18 Premier League Cup
Newcastle United Academy
Tuesday 11 January, 11am GMT
Newcastle’s Under-18s have been out of action for just over a month, with their last outing resulting in a 3-2 victory over West Ham United in the FA Youth Cup.
It’s been a difficult season so far for Newcastle, who currently sit 13th in the Under-18 Premier League North table.
Saints’ youngsters will also be playing their first match in over a month as they travel to Newcastle in the Under-18 Premier League Cup.
After an otherwise positive season, Saints’ last outing saw them fall to a narrow 1-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Youth Cup, ending a run of six unbeaten.
Their last league outing was a much more successful one, though, claiming a 2-0 victory over Fulham.
With Leicester claiming victory over Nottingham Forest in their final group game, Saints will need a comprehensive victory over Newcastle in order to progress to the next stage.
The two sides last faced each other back in April 2017, where the scores were tied.
Callum Slattery and Solomon Wanjau Smith were on the scoresheet for Saints at Staplewood that day, while Mackenzie Heaney and Kelland Watts scored for the visitors.
“Obviously it’s been a long time since we’ve had a game,” admitted Individual Player coach Mikey Harris. “With the Christmas break and then our last league game of last year was postponed.
“The boys are obviously looking forward to a game. As with most clubs at the moment we have a lot of players missing for various reasons, so it’ll be a good opportunity for some of our younger players to play tomorrow so we’re really excited to see how they get on.
“Our goal is to put in the best possible performance we can and if we can score the goals required to get through and progress in the competition that would be fantastic but from our perspective it’s a great experience for the lads to travel this far.
“Some of the young boys to come up and experience this is a really big part of their development journey.”
