Academy director Bryan Klug is expecting a "helter skelter, 100 miles-an-hour" clash when Town's U18s face Sunderland in the FA Youth Cup third round at Portman Road this evening (KO 7pm). Klug was in charge at Playford Road when the Blues last won the competition in 2005.

He says it’s an important game for the youngsters: “The first game in the Youth Cup is a big event for them. It’s about how well they handle the situation as much as anything else.

“My experience over many, many years is that the first game is always helter skelter, 100 miles-an-hour but we just want them to go out and be calm and play good football.”

While developing players is the main focus of youth coaching, Klug says winning is also important: “I don’t care what people say about development, you try and win any game at any sport, in anything you do you try and win.

“There’s a way of doing it, we’ll never compromise that, we’ll always try and play the way we do. We want to be competitive, we want to be all that stuff, but also at this level we want to do it in the right manner, which is through good football.

“We won’t compromise that. It might not look that way, but we will be trying to play good football. It’s how they handle the occasion that allows them to play in the way they should.”

He says youth football has moved on significantly in the years since the Blues last won the tournament with the bigger clubs in particular putting more and more resources into their academies, leading to a different approach.

“The game’s changed, without a shadow of a doubt,” he said. “We were watching the Youth Cup final from 2005 and the game is visibly different.

“It’s got more organised and most clubs have become more professional, which is a shame in some ways because you can be too professional.

“It’s more important to get good habits and that the lads really love playing football, simple as that, without getting too carried away about results and about the other elements of the game.

“At the end of the day these are 16, 17 or 18-year-old players who haven’t mastered the skills yet. They’re not there yet, they’re not the full article until they’ve got the basics right.

“The add-on bits have become more prevalent, bigger academies have got so many staff. That shouldn’t be too important until you can do your basic job well.”

He believes the side will benefit from having players such as right-back Kyle Hammond and midfielders Byron Lawrence and Amir Berkane who have been around the first team squad and in the U21s regularly.

“We’ve got one or two players who have played quite a bit of U21 football sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes because we short of players,” he said.

“One or two players have been around Mick’s squad in pre-season, Kyle Hammond’s been training with them for a while.

“I think there are some second years are in there and the ball is in their court to put in the performances which get people talking about them.

“It’s important that they’re playing the right way. But you never know because on an occasion like this some boys just relish it, love it and other boys take a little while to get used to it.

"You’d just like to get through this round because it’s a great learning thing for all the players.”

Admission costs £3 for adults and £1 for concessions with only the Cobbold Stand open.

U18s: Michael Crowe, Kyle Hammond, Joe Robinson, Jack Willbye, George Fowler, Omar Sowunmi, Byron Lawrence, Amir Berkane, George Clarke, Teddy Bishop, Matthew Clarke, Ronaldo Jones, Jacob Marsden, Edward Ellis, Cemal Ramadan, Sam Ford.

Photo: Action Images

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