Southend United are planning to bus fans up to their fifth round FA Youth Cup tie at Liverpool after the success of their trip to Derby in the last round.
The Blues’, backed by around 50 of the Club’s supporters, recorded a 3-1 away success at Pride Park last week and in doing so completed their first ever win over an Academy side away from home.
And with the Anfield beckoning for a glamour tie the Club are hoping to follow the same recipe for success in the next round with the Shrimpers Trust providing supporters with the means to travel to the game.
The Trust who currently operate coaches to all the Club’s first-team away games on behalf of Southend United Football Club expect support numbers to triple for the trip to Merseyside.
“It’s going very well, we’re currently half-way through filling spaces on the second coach so by the time of the game you could be talking over 100 fans travelling via us,” said Trust Board Member, Paul Yeomanson.
“I’m also well aware of a number of others who are going to travel to Liverpool independently so you could see over 150 fans at Anfield on the night,” he added.
Head of Youth Ricky Duncan has been buoyed by the level of support that the Youth team has had:
“It’s fantastic to think that 150 people will give up their time on a Monday night to travel up to Liverpool to support the lads. The Youth department is the future of the Club and we’re really grateful to the Trust for the excellent support they give us,” said Duncan.
“The trip to Anfield will top off a really good season for many of the lads but ultimately we’re about getting players through to first team level. Our skipper Kane (Ferdinand) is already there but we’ve had a number of other who have been involved and that’s what it’s all about for us. When I came back to the Club we set up a five year plan to get players through and we’re now starting to see the results of that,” he added.
With the fixture set to be played on 14 February at 7pm the coach departs Roots Hall at 11.30am and those travelling will hope to see Duncan’s team make history by reaching the quarter final of the competition for the first time in the Club’s history.
Full details of this trip can be found on the Shrimpers Trust website at www.shrimperstrust.co.uk
Other fifth round ties still to be played include:
- 02/02/11 Nottingham Forest v Middlesbrough
- 04/02/11 Fulham v Watford
- 11/02/11 Chelsea v Barnsley
- 14/02/11 Liverpool v Southend United
- 15/02/11 Leeds United v Aston Villa
- 16/02/11 Manchester United v Newcastle United
