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Blues youth guru rightly wary of Master Rudd as City’s kids prepare for the game of their lives

7th March 2009 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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Manchester City's Academy chief Jim Cassell knows exactly the challenge that awaits his FA Youth Cup favourites at the City of Manchester Stadium this lunchtime – finding a way beyond Canary keeper Declan Rudd.

And as much as Cassell's young charges might be deemed the youth team to beat in this season's competition after taking last year's FA Yoth Cup crown with that victory over Chelsea, so you can bet your bottom dollar that even he would be wary of today's quarter-final tie straying into penalties.

For having watched Rudd's efforts against Everton in the last round and heard reports of his spot-kick heroics against Stoke in the round before, so Cassell's best-laid plans do not include today's game going to penalties.

That the favourites need to avoid at all costs.

“On the night I saw him at Everton, Declan looked as if he would challenge anybody in his age group,” said Cassell, the man who brought the likes of Lee Croft, Ched Evans and Shaun Wright-Phillips to the fore.

“You can see the whole team have confidence in him,” he added.

Certainly Ricky Martin's kids will have every faith in their No1 should the game get to the shoot-out stage.

To get there, however, they are going to have to turn in the performance of their young lives against a Blues side that is unbeaten this season and scroes goals for fun.

And it is up front where the big dangers lie – in particular at the feet of the Slovakia-born, Manchester-raised striker Robbie Mak and Liberian frontman Alex Nimely.

Those two, in particular, have helped to take the Eastlands outfit 15 points clear of second-placed neighbours United at the top of the under-18s' Premier Academy League Group C. As well as brushing Swansea, Portsmouth and Newcastle on their way to the last eight.

Cassell was, however, warning against taking anything for granted ahead of this weekend's showdown. After all, this is a City side that has racked up victories against both Arsenal and Chelsea on their own travels.

And in the likes of Rudd, Tom Adeyemi, David Stephens and skipper Korey Smith have the kind of teenage talent that Cassell is swift to admire. Crucially, they also have a height and an athleticism about them – crucial to success in today's game.

“The unbeaten run is very pleasing, but you are always worried about getting over-confident, and we work to make sure that doesn't happen,” Cassell told the Manchester Evening News in the run-up to today's game.

“Norwich are a good side. I saw them beat Everton on penalties in the last round, and they've got good pace and good size about them. Although we've got home advantage, we will have to play at full pace if we want to beat them.”

The shame is that very few Canary fans will be there to witness it. Those that may have travelled to the North-West are likely to be the same fans that would normally be expected to travel a further 50-odd miles up the M6 to Blackpool where the Canaries' own, first-team game kicks off two hours later.

Victory for the boys at the City of Manchester Stadium would certainly provide boss Bryan Gunn with just the sort of positive news he'd like in the dressing room beforehand.

And as the City youngsters prepared to board the bus at Colney for the trip to Manchester last night, so Gunn was adding his very best wishes to Martin's boys.

“I've been speaking to Ricky [Martin] and the lads are all buzzing,” said Gunn, with the chance of a first team nibble already there for the likes of Smith and Adeyemi before the season is out.

“And I think they're all happy because they're not having to clean the boots after training today because they've got their own big game to concentrate on.

“But it's great when your club's youth team gets those results against other Premier League sides [Wigan, Stoke and Everton] and this is, obviously, going to be their biggest test.

“Manchester City have got, I believe, the best youth team record in the country at the moment – unbeaten. But this is a massive opportunity for them to play at one of the great stadiums in our country and, hopefully, for a lot of the players it'll be a great experience and a springboard to a professional career.”

And whether Master Rudd's name has long been etched into that FA Youth Cup trophy will soon become clear…


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barneywebb_ Barney @barneywebb_ ·
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Wish I was at Carrow Road today, massive game #ncfc

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Let's go Yellows! OTBC 💛💚 #ncfc

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Should beat Burnley reserves tbh #ncfc

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norwichcityes Norwich City FC en español @norwichcityes ·
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Ya estamos en Carrow Road ⏳

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samseaman8 Samuel Seaman @samseaman8 ·
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Finally back at Carrow Road for what should be a fascinating Championship match. A real measuring stick moment for David Wagner’s #NCFC against a side they feel they should be competing with.

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