Spurs under 18’s versus Aston Villa: (match preview)

Our under 18’s will be looking to bounce back from last Tuesday’s devastating league defeat to bitter rivals Arsenal, when they take on Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon. John McDermott and Ryan Mason’s side will be looking to return to winning ways so as to keep their title challenge alive, as we enter the final three matches of the season. Tuesday was a day which will live with the wonder boys of Hotspur Way for a long long time, and for all the wrong reasons. After performing so well against Arsenal for the majority of the first half it seemed as if Spurs were destined to win the game after they went 2-0 up  inside the first 35 minutes. However, the dismissal of central defender Luis Binks less than five minutes later had a huge impact on a game which could only be described as a title decider. Although the ten men of Spurs did defend superbly well for large parts of the second half, the pressure in which the ‘ Gunners ‘ put them under proved to be too much in the end. After Arsenal scored two late goals in under two minutes, the Tottenham defence started to crumble and deep in stoppage time Arsenal managed to score a hugely controversial winner. Still with a game in hand, Spurs can still mathematically win the Premier League South although they will be relying on Arsenal to draw one of their remaining two fixtures. With a number of players missing tomorrow’s game such as Luis Binks (suspended), Dennis Cirkin and Armando Shashoua Spurs will have to rely on some of the younger and more inexperienced members of their squad. It is vital that McDermott and Mason’s side return to winning ways when they take on the ‘ Villains ‘ at their Bodymoor Heath training ground however, it will be a difficult task for the young Lilywhites to achieve. David Hughes’ Aston Villa sit in seventh place in the league table after picking up 25 points from their 19 league matches this season. The ‘ Villains ‘ play a nice brand of attacking football and they have some good young players coming through their ranks. Left winger Colin Odutayo is one of their main danger men however, a couple more players to keep an eye on tomorrow are centre half Mungo Bridge and goal scoring attacking midfielder Michael Tait who has scored seven goals so far this campaign.

Spurs will be hoping that they can get back to winning ways tomorrow by exploiting Aston Villa’s leaky defence. I will be traveling up to Staffordshire early tomorrow morning to report on what is another very important match. I would like to wish the team all the very best of luck for Saturday’s game and I hope it will be a similar outcome to when we last met Aston Villa back in October.

My predicted lineup: (4-2-3-1) Oluwayemi, Okedina, Walcott, Lyons-Foster, Statham, Patterson, White, Markanday (c), Thorpe, Clarke, Whittaker.

Subs from: Kurylowicz, Cooper, Pochettino, Parrott.

Injured/unavailable: Jeremie Mukendi, Maximus Tainio, Enoch Asante, Rodel Richards, Dennis Cirkin, Luis Binks, Jamie Bowden, Armando Shashoua.

Doubtful: J’Neil Bennett, Troy Parrott.

Previous meeting: Spurs 6-1.

My score prediction: Spurs 5-2.

My one to watch: The ‘ Villains ‘ speedy Dutch winger Colin Odutayo, who will be one of Aston Villa’s main attacking threats tomorrow afternoon. The second year scholar (18) who primarily operates out on the left wing, has been in good form for David Hughes’ side this season. Odutayo has scored seven goals for their under 18 side across all competitions, one of those goals came against us in the reverse fixture when we beat them 6-1. The left winger is extremely quick and skilful and he has a good left foot on him.