Forest boss wary of Saints' young guns (From Daily Echo)

Forest boss wary of Saints' young guns

8:00am Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Saints News

THE Nottingham Forest academy director admits there are no weak links in Southampton’s latest FA Youth Cup side.

Saints host Forest’s Under-18s in the fifth round of youth football’s blue riband competition at 7pm tonight.

Having beaten Sheffield United 7-0 in their last St Mary’s outing – one of eight successive league and cup wins – Saints will not be short of confidence.

But Forest also registered one of the biggest wins of this season’s competition when they beat Wigan Athletic 9-1 in the previous round.

Something has to give tonight and Nick Marshall, who has worked for Forest’s academy since its inception in 1997, is well aware of the threat posed by Jason Dodd’s Saints side.

He said: “I was at the Reebok to see them beat Bolton 2-1 in the last round and we’ve got DVDs of them, as I’m sure they have of us.

“They didn’t quite get out of first gear at Bolton. They played within themselves, but they clicked in the second half and have been doing very, very well in their league.

“There’s no real stand-out team in the competition this year but Southampton are among a group I would expect the winners to come from. We’ll have to be at our best.

“Usually there are two or three very good players in a side and a few that make up the numbers but that’s not the case with Southampton.

“A lot has been made of the defender Luke Shaw but they’re strong all over the pitch.”

Marshall knows more about Saints’ recent success at academy level than most, having worked with Steve Wigley at Forest before he left for St Mary’s in 2001.

Ironically, two of Wigley’s Saints alumni, Dexter Blackstock and former Notts County schoolboy David McGoldrick, are now in Forest’s first-team squad.

But Marshall has also seen several players graduate to Forest’s first team since beginning life at the City Ground alongside Paul Hart 15 years ago. The likes of Michael Dawson, James Perch, Wes Morgan, Lewis McGugan, David Prutton and Jermaine Jenas have all come through the ranks during the last decade.

Amongst the latest batch is one player who has already played for the Forest first team.

Patrick Bamford has come off the bench at the end of Forest’s recent Championship defeats against Cardiff and Ipswich since Christmas.

And the 18-year-old striker was the star of the last round, scoring FIVE of Forest’s goals.

Admission tonight is £5 for adults and £3 for under-17s and over-65s.