Wolves academy head coach Jerry Gill has revealed he has altered his young players’ body clocks in preparation for Friday’s FA Youth Cup fifth round tie with Reading.
Gill’s youngsters will look to maintain their recent good form, having beaten Liverpool 2-0 in the Under-18s Premier League on Saturday lunchtime.
But Gill has revealed his side had moved their training to the evenings to be ready for the visit of Reading.
Wolves v Reading
The FA Youth Cup
Fifth Round
7pm, Friday 5 February
Molineux
by Sam Tobin
Gill said: “It keeps it fresh, but it also gives them an idea of how to get their bodies ready for that time of night.
“We train normally in the mornings, we play our games on a Saturday in the mornings and, come FA Youth Cup, they’re in the evenings, so why not prepare properly so that we give every player the opportunity to go out there and perform to their best?”
Former Birmingham City defender Gill is hopeful of attracting a large crowd to Molineux for the game and said the club were hoping to encourage fans not intending to make the trip to see the first team play Reading on Saturday to turn out and cheer on their academy stars.
Gill added: “We’ve spoken to our press officer and we’ve spoken to the commercial department. We’ve shut down some of the academy from the evening so that all the younger players can come along and watch as well.
“The players are in really good form and good spirits, they’re playing some really good free flowing attacking football.
"We’ve played at Molineux three times, once in the league and twice in The FA Youth Cup and we’ve won all three and kept clean sheets in all the games, so hopefully fans and players alike will take confidence from that.”
Wolves ended underdogs Metropolitan Police’s FA Youth Cup with a routine 5-0 win in round four.
Three goals in the first half-hour effectively put their fourth round tie to bed and Wolves added two more after the break through Joe Delacoe and Daniel Armstrong.
But, despite their relatively straightforward passage to this stage, Gill’s side would prepare for the next round as stringently as ever.
Gill said: “We went into that game [v Met Police] expecting a really tough game and what we spoke about during the week was the intensity with and without the ball. We felt that if we started really well and quickly, pressing and also in our play that we’d have a good chance of undoing them.
“[Reading] are a very good outfit, I’ve been around the catchment area for a very long time. I understand that they’ve got a very good academy down there, they do things the right way, and I’ve seen them on numerous occasions over the years. They’re always a big, strong, powerful outfit.”
