Stockton Town U18 continue their FA Youth Cup campaign tonight with a trip to South Shields in the First Qualifying Round.
The Young Anchors are in tremendous form to start the season and won their latest JPL Cup tie 9-1 at Pickering Town on Saturday. Jaudeon Faulkner helped himself to a hattrick, and Luca Ferguson bagged a brace. Luke Brumpton, Tom Miller, Luca Morris and Seb Waller were also on the scoresheet.
It continued their fine form in front of goal with a whopping 31 goals scored in their opening three games. That included a 11-0 win over Consett in the Preliminary Round of the FA Youth Cup.
“We are really lucky that the lads have bought into how we want to play, both this season and last, having quite a few who were part of the group last season has certainly helped that,” Manager Paddy Davis said.
“We want the lads to have the freedom to do things, which is probably why we are scoring so many goals.”
Remarkably The Young Anchors achieved that emphatic win at Pickering Town without some of their main players. Jack Spears, Tom Birtles, Dan Dryden and Joe Kennedy were all part of the matchday squad in the first team’s victory over Marine in the FA Cup. Spears, who shone in Pre-Season, came on in the final part of the game.
“It’s fantastic to have lads involved with the first team set up, we regularly have lads training with the first team. Yesterday was testament to the faith the first team staff have in our U18 set up, “ Davis said.
“The lads who were in the first team will be back in the squad for tonight’s trip to South Shields and they should be full of confidence after the weekend, along with the lads who played against Pickering.”
There’s no doubt that Stockton’s biggest test comes tonight at South Shields. The two sides met in the same stage of the competition in 2021 and played out a seven-goal thriller. That night, the Mariners came out on top.
Stockton will be hoping for a victory to better their result from last season when they bowed out in the First Qualifying Round with defeat at Blyth Spartans.
“It’s extremely challenging against South Shields, they play in a really high standard league and have a history of getting to the latter rounds in this competition,” Davis said.
“It allows us to see where we are as a group. It’ll certainly help me learn about my squad. We can’t wait for it.”
Tonight’s game takes place at the First Cloud Arena and kick-off is 7pm. Entry is £3 Adults, and £1 for Concessions (Pay on the gate only)
