Match preview | Imps U18 vs Notts County U18

Notts County preview for the Academy.

City U18 continue their EFL Youth Alliance campaign against Notts County at the Barret Steel Stadium on Friday.

Hear from head coach Sam Tillen and forward Zane Okoro as well as important match information in this preview.

Sam Tillen’s thoughts:

“Training this week has been good off the back of a positive result against Morecambe last time out. Our start to the season has been good, we’ve been strong defensively and created chances at the other end of the pitch, we just need to continue that and be consistent.

“We’re unbeaten in our last three games and we’ve won our last two league games against good opposition. We want to continue our good run, keep picking up points and gaining momentum.

“It will be a tough test against Notts County who have started the season well. We have worked hard this week, preparations have gone well and hopefully we’ll be ready for the challenge they will provide us on Friday.”

Zane Okoro on County test:

“We look forward to every match that we play and we take it one game at a time. I trust everyone in the team to put in a good performance every match so I’m looking forward to it.”

“It will be a tough game against Notts County, they’re a good team but we go into hoping to win.”

A look at the opposition:

The young Imps will face County twice in September, with Friday’s visitors also competing in City’s Youth Alliance Cup group.

County sit one place behind City in the Youth Alliance, after winning two of their opening three fixtures, including their latest victory over Huddersfield Town.

City beat County 4-0 twice last season in league action and also recorded a 3-1 victory at Meadow Lane in the FA Youth Cup.

Match information:

City will be aiming to extend their unbeaten run to four games when they return to Bottesford and welcome Notts County on Friday.

There’s free entry to the game for supporters with kick-off at 12pm, while there will also be updates available from our Academy X (formerly Twitter) account.