West Bromwich Albion’s youngsters will go in search of a spot in the last eight of the FA Youth Cup when they take on Norwich City in round five of the prestigious tournament on Tuesday night (ko 7pm).
The Albion face the Canaries at Carrow Road having already beaten Harrogate Town and Stoke City away from home in the competition this season.
Last time out
First-half goals from Donte-German Ranger and Divine Onyemachi helped Leigh Downing’s side to a 2-0 success at Stoke City in round four.
Progression took 120 minutes to achieve in round three, with the club’s youngsters eventually finding a way past Harrogate Town to win a ten-goal thriller 6-4 at the Exercise Stadium.
Cole Deeming netted a brace, while Rhys Morrish, Ollie Bostock, Rio Parmar and a trialist also added goals to help the Baggies’ academy hopefuls come out on top in a topsy-turvy tie in North Yorkshire.
Venue
The fifth-round tie will take place at Norwich City’s Carrow Road stadium.
The venue has a capacity of just over 27,000.
Opponents
The Canaries defeated Brentford 4-3 at home in the third round of the tournament before Christmas.
City then went on to knock AFC Bournemouth out in round four, claiming a 3-1 victory down on the south coast.
In the league they sit 11th in the U18 Premier League South standings, with 10 points from 10 games played.
Norwich’s U18 group are managed by Greg Crane, who represented the club’s academy from the age of U8s all the way through to U19s and the reserve team. After leaving, he went on to play non-league football for King’s Lynn Town and Norwich United. Crane has coached every age group from U9s to U18s and will be determined to see his squad book a quarter-final spot in midweek.
Pre-match thoughts
Ahead of Tuesday's tie, U18s boss Leigh Downing said: "It’s been a really positive competition for us so far and the lads have had some really good experiences.
"We’ve played at a Sky Bet League Two stadium up at Harrogate in round three and then we went to a Sky Bet Championship stadium in round four, beating Stoke City at the bet365.
"We played really well against Stoke to book our place in this round of the competition.
"Carrow Road will be a great ground for our boys to play at. Hopefully we can replicate the performance and the result from the last round at Stoke.
"Ultimately, it’s about the boys turning up on the night and producing the best football that they possibly can. If we can put in a good performance and achieve a positive result, everyone will be delighted.
"We’ve had previous teams at this age level who have gone on to semi-finals. We want to be another group at Albion which manages to do that. Lads in those teams who reached the latter stages in previous years, a lot of those players are now playing professional football.
"We always want to try and go as far as we possibly can in any tournament and the FA Youth Cup is the big one at this age. Hopefully we’re celebrating a spot in the last eight after full-time on Tuesday."
Ticket Details
Tickets are available to purchase on the gate at Carrow Road from the South Stand. Prices are £2 adults and free for those under the age of 18.
How to follow
Norwich City will be streaming the game live on their YouTube channel. Click here from 6.50pm to watch.
