Blackburn Rovers U18s celebrate their quarter-final win over Burnley. (Image: Blackburn Rovers)
Blackburn Rovers U18s celebrate their quarter-final win over Burnley.
Blackburn Rovers are hoping to take another important step on their remarkable FA Youth Cup journey as they face Manchester City.
It will be Paul Butler's side's toughest assignment yet as they face the Premier League heavyweights in Manchester on Friday night. Rovers have dumped out Southampton, Coventry City, Swansea City and Burnley on their way to the last four.
A clash with Manchester United or Crystal Palace will await the winner, with Butler delighted with the development his side have made.
“It’s been really good for the club and the supporters to see their players developing and moving on in the journey of hopefully becoming fully established young professionals,” he said.
“The competition has provided the players with a range of experiences and we’ve collected those in the four games we’ve had.
“This is a period of their career that they only get for a finite period of time. Typically, it’s a two-year process that they go through to engineer a playing career, and you’ll never forget those experiences, particularly when there are successful times.
“The players’ development and growth has been supported greatly by the success in this tournament and in the league games.
“That rhythm and success has helped accelerate that development, and they’ve come a long way from the point we met each other in June.”
Star midfielder Frank Vare is confident his team have the quality to match City. The Academy youngster believes they have showcased their adaptability in the competition.
“It will be a challenge in the semi-final, but I feel with the team we’ve got, we can beat anyone and hopefully progress to the final,
“The FA Youth Cup's been really good because we’ve had to win different types of games.
“In the last round, being against Burnley and at Ewood with the crowd, it was really good for us and it helped us progress to the next round.
“Having different types of tests in the competition has helped us all as a group as we know what we have to do to get a win in any game.
“In a game like that, it was hard to settle down, but we moved the ball more quickly, and we eventually got our reward.
“The Youth Cup has put us out there a lot more. It helps showcase us and shows how good a team we are.”
You can follow the FA Youth Cup semi-final via Lancashire Telegraph's dedicated live blog.