Youngsters Aiming for the Final

Liverpool's young starlets aim to reach the final of the FA Youth Cup when they take a 2-1 first leg lead to Southampton's St Mary's Stadium (thanks to goals from Jack Hobbs and Craig Lindfield) for the second leg of the semi-final at 7:30 tonight.

Steve Heighway's team head to St Mary's Stadium full of confidence that they can reach the final of the FA Youth Cup for the first time since they won it in 1996. Goals from Jack Hobbs and Craig Lindfield have put Liverpool in the driving seat ahead of the second leg and the goal Southampton scored doesn't count double as there are no away goals rule in the FA Youth Cup.

"Fortunately the away goal doesn't count in this competition so we will go to Southampton with confidence," Heighway told Liverpoolfc.tv. "Southampton are a good side and it will be a tough game but we will give it a good go because we've still got our noses ahead."

Liverpool's youngsters will be urged to play their normal game tonight as they lie just 90 minutes away from a place in this season's FA Youth Cup final.

Although a draw will take them safely through to the final coach John Owens insists the emphasis must be on going out to win the match tonight. "Looking at the Youth Cup it is a major event in the season and we are delighted to be doing so well. But it is not an end in itself. Okay it will end and someone will win the cup and we would like it to be us. That then will go into history. But what we want is that these boys use these games to progress and develop into players who can go from the Academy into the reserves and from the reserves into the first team."