U18s PREVIEW: PRESTON NORTH END V BURNLEY

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Young Clarets travel to Preston in last eight of local tournament

2021-11-09T09:00:00.000Z

U18s PREVIEW: PRESTON NORTH END V BURNLEY

Young Clarets travel to Preston in last eight of local tournament

2021-11-09T09:00:00.000Z

Young Clarets to host The Hatters on December 7th

Prior to the November international break, Tony Philliskirk and the youth team will face a Lancashire derby in the quarter-finals of the Lancashire FA Professional Youth Cup as they travel to Preston North End.

Burnley qualified for this stage of the competition courtesy of a 3-0 victory over Fleetwood Town back in September, with Joe Bauress, Michael Mellon and Sean Etaluku all on the scoresheet in Leyland.

More recently, the young Clarets secured a first win in four league games in their last outing, with a 3-1 triumph away at Stoke City’s Clayton Wood training ground on Bonfire Night.

Tremaine Eastmond netted an equaliser for Burnley just before the break, with teammates Will Hugill and Joe Bauress scoring in the 90th & 92nd minutes respectively to seal three points in the U18 Northern Premier League.

Having seen his side rise to fifth in the league table on Friday night – later moving to ninth due to other results - boss Philliskirk believes confidence will be high in the camp when they take on the Lilywhites on Wednesday.

U17s REPORT: BURNLEY 3-1 BLACKBURN ROVERS - Image 1

Speaking post-match in the Potteries, he said: “The game against Preston presents a big opportunity for the lads to go and get themselves into a semi-final.

“These types of games are the ones that you want to play in as players because they’re important even at Under 18 level. It’s a cup quarter final which we’ll be going into in good spirits after a great result tonight.

“We’re all about youth development and developing players, but learning to win games is undoubtedly a part of that development. The biggest message to them from me tonight is that they found a way to win, which is what good teams do. I hope that we can go on and do the same on Wednesday afternoon.

“More generally, it’s good to see that we’re now putting ourselves into a position to go and progress into the latter stages of various competitions.

“As well as the game against Preston, we have a Premier League Cup game to come against West Ham next month which we go into knowing that a win takes us through to the last eight of that competition. The FA Youth Cup starts next month for us too, so these cup fixtures are great occasions.”

North End’s academy is currently at Category three status and their youth team play in the Youth Alliance League, from which promotion can be gained up into the Professional Development League – one division below the Clarets.

With the Youth Alliance League split into four regions, Preston are involved in the ‘North West Conference’, in which they sit third at the time of writing having taken 18 points from eight games this season.

Nick Harrison’s side have lost just twice in the league to date this term, and won 4-0 at home to Morecambe in their last match with four different players getting on the scoresheet.

Kicking off at 1:00PM on Wednesday – November 10 – the LFA Professional Youth Cup quarter-final will take place at North End’s Springfields (Euxton) training ground, and coverage will be available via Burnley’s official academy Twitter page - @ClaretsAcademy.