R&DFC Youth v Chelsea Academy

Friday 31^st July 2009, 7:30pm Kick Off

Nene Park - Pitch 2

Entrance for fans is free, the youth team will be running a few fundraisers on the night (such as a prize draw) which we'd love fans to participate in, instead of paying an entrance fee.

On Friday the Youth Team face Premier League Chelsea's Academy, we talked to Head of Youth Paul Driver about the exciting tie.

Will everyone be involved?

Yep, everyone from the Youth Team will be involved, except maybe James Broadbent who is suffering from a niggle in his quads, the goalkeeper we're using for now is the lad out of the Under 16s, Carl Swails.

The rest of the team will all get a decent run out and I suspect that will be a good fitness work out as we may be chasing footballs around for ninety minutes. But that's what I want out of the game.

I expect playing 50 or 60 minutes against Chelsea is the equivalent of playing 90 against most other teams, then there's the big one at the weekend against the legends.

Do Chelsea have a lot of foreign youngsters in their academy, or are they home grown?

They have got a mixture of the two, players developed both through their academy and acquired at Under 16 level. I would think they could probably make 3 squads, so we'll just have to see what they bring down. Whatever they bring you know will give us a run though. Hopefully they'll play a bit and let us play a bit too.