Exeter City’s under-18s have the honour of hosting Manchester City in a prestigious friendly at St James Park.
The travelling side arrive at SJP with experience against some of the top sides in the country. They fall under Category 1 status as according to the Premier League’s Elite Players Performance Plan (EPPP).
Indeed, Man City themselves have had a knack of turning out plenty of prospects of their own. Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton, Stephen Ireland, Nedum Ohuoha, Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge are just some of the names to have graduated from the City Academy.
But for Exeter City, many of the current first-team have come through the ranks at the Cat & Fiddle and Matt Jay proved a week ago that they are bridging the gap ever younger.
Exeter City under-18 head coach Lee Skyrme: “It’s a different challenge to what they face every week – they will face technically better players, and more than likely players that will be very good athletes as well and from different parts of the world as well.
“It’ll be a very good test – we will certainly be going in with the right attitude and not treating it as a friendly.”
Exeter’s youngsters have gotten off to a good start to the Youth Alliance South West season – despite losing away to AFC Bournemouth on the opening weekend, they have gone on to rack up back-to-back 5-0 victories against Swindon and Torquay. However in the absence of Jay, who was in Dagenham with the senior squad, they were held to a home draw against Plymouth in the Youth Alliance Cup last Saturday, making for a replay in the near future.
Meanwhile Man City won their last outing in the Barclays Premier Academy League by overcoming Leicester 1-0. Bersant Celina scored a last-minute winner in their only fixture so far of the league season.
Tickets are available to buy at the turnstiles on Stadium Way, with fans being housed in the Flybe Stand. Adult entry is £4 and under-18s can come for just £1. Click here for further details.