Sydney FC’s young brigade will get another chance to shine at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday, where they’ll look to maintain their perfect record in the National Youth League curtain raiser against the Central Coast Mariners.
Sydney FC-s young brigade will get another chance to shine at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday, where they-ll look to maintain their perfect record in the National Youth League curtain raiser against the Central Coast Mariners.
Steve O-Connor-s side has won four on the trot and is looking forward to returning to the SFS for the first instalment of the Sydney-Central Coast rivalry at youth league level.
“I think it-s great for the boys having the home ground atmosphere for sure, they-ve only had it once, so we-re looking forward to it,” O-Connor said. “The rivalry aspect is something I-ll be mentioning tonight at training, making sure the boys are up for it. But credit to them, they-ve been up for all the games so far in terms of mental performance.”
The young Sky Blues have knocked off Queensland, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne thus far to lead the competition by four points.
With injuries, international duty and promotions to the senior side forcing constant changes to his team O-Connor has had to keep things simple, but the former AIS mentor sees it as a positive sign for the competition, and something that-s motivating his young stars to succeed.
“It-s good for all the guys to see people getting opportunities to play in the first team, if they don-t want that they shouldn-t be here. I-m pleased about it,” he said. “I-m sure that-ll happen more and more. As some of the older players head to the end of their careers, the new one put their hands up. The message there is that there are opportunities.”
Sydney FC-s young guns will have their next chance to impress when the play in the curtain-raiser to the Sky Blues- local derby against the Central Coast Mariners at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Gates open at 4pm with kick off in the Youth League encounter at 4:15pm.
