Watford’s FA Youth Cup journey for the 2021/22 season begins in Wales as Tom Hart’s Under-18s travel to Cardiff for the third round of the prestigious competition this evening (Wednesday December 8, 7pm KO).
The Hornets, who are two-time winners of the competition, understand the significance of the contest, and will hope to better the semi-final finish achieved in the 2018/19 campaign, where Watford visited Anfield and the King Power Stadium on unforgettable occasions.
Academy Head of Technical Development Jimmy Gilligan is no stranger to the competition from his time as a Watford player.
“Back in the 1982/83 season I was very proud and privileged to be in a side that won the FA Youth Cup with the second leg being here at Vicarage Road,” said the former striker. “We drew 4-4 after extra-time and we had beaten Manchester United at Old Trafford 3-2, and we ended up winning it on aggregate.
“I think for any young lad, the pinnacle is to play in the FA Youth Cup and to go as far as you can in it because it is such a different type of competition. Every week you play at the training ground in your league programmes and then all of a sudden you are going under the lights, in stadiums. A lot of them are at the main stadiums now as well. You are going against teams that might be Category One academies and Category Three academies, and sometimes you meet teams that you don’t normally come up against in your league programme.
“I think the lads will look forward to it; it’s a real special occasion. Sometimes you just have to be careful that you don’t let the occasion take over. You try to keep things normal and not to hype it up. Tom Hart is getting the lads ready and hopefully they will go to Cardiff and give a real good account of themselves.”
Adian Manning will hope to be involved this evening following a magnificent display in Watford's 3-1 win over Bristol City last weekend. A combative, creative midfielder, Manning scored an impressive 30-yard free-kick against the Robins and is relishing the challenge of playing in the FA Youth Cup again.
Manning looks up to some of the players still at the club that were involved in the cup run in 2018/19, and is hoping for similar success this time around.
“The FA Youth Cup is one of the biggest cup competitions you have as an academy player,” said Manning.
“I think it is very important to do well because it gives you a platform to impress other people. It's such an important competition.
“For Wednesday, everyone is excited, we’ve played Cardiff before and we need to show what we have got because we lost to them last time. We need to prove to everyone and ourselves that we can go far in that competition.
“It’s very exciting, especially when all the players come together. All the Under-18s who have been playing with the 23s or have been out on loan will come back for this. That’s a team that doesn’t play very often so we are excited to see how well we can do. Looking up to Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, George Langston – players who got far in the competition before against Liverpool in the semi-final - it gives us hope.
“There is that extra buzz with the FA Youth Cup. Training has been great in the build-up. The mood around the camp is very good and everyone is buzzing because we are all together and you can see that when we train. It’s really good at the moment.”
Watch The Match Live!
Kick-off at the Cardiff City Stadium is 7pm (GMT), and you can watch the game here at watfordfc.com with a live stream.
Tickets can also be purchased HERE.
