Spurs under 23’s versus Manchester City: (match preview)

(This photograph is from Tottenham Hotspur FC)

Fresh from their emphatic 4-0 victory over Liverpool last Saturday, Spurs’ under 23’s will welcome Manchester City’s development side to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium for tomorrow’s historic PL2 game. Wayne Burnett’s side got off to the dream start against a very strong Liverpool side and they’ll be hoping to continue their strong start to the season by overcoming a Man City side who they did the double over last season in the league. Paul Harsley’s Manchester City lost their opening league game of the season 4-3 to Southampton and they’ll be desperate to avoid a similar outcome tomorrow. Man City have a talented squad of young players and some of the ‘ Sky Blues ‘ players to keep an eye on tomorrow night include 17 year old goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, centre half Nathanael Ogbeta, skilful winger Ian Carlo Poveda and Spanish attacking midfielder Adrian Bernabe. Despite having home advantage and the opportunity to play at our fantastic 62,000 seater home, this will be another very tough game for Burnett’s side and one in which they’ll need to be at their very best if they want to get maximum points out of. In terms of how Spurs will lineup I wouldn’t be surprised if Spurs’ lineup was exactly the same as the one in which defeated Liverpool last week. With players such as Kazaiah Sterling, Paris Maghoma and Jamie Bowden all likely to start. In this fixture last season we put in an excellent team performance to overcome a very technical Man City side 2-0. It was in many ways the complete team performance. A similar performance tomorrow night would be wonderful to see. My in-depth match report of tomorrow’s game will be published on Saturday afternoon. Playing in front of up to 10,000 spectators will provide our lads with memories that they will never ever forget. 

My predicted lineup: (4-2-3-1) Austin, Okedina, Eyoma, Lyons-Foster, Hinds, Oakley-Boothe, Bowden, Markanday, Maghoma, Tracey, Sterling (c).

Subs from: De Bie, Clarke, Dinzeyi, A.Shashoua, S.Shashoua.

Injured/unavailable: Malachi Walcott, Phoenix Patterson, Maurizio Pochettino, Maximus Tainio, J’Neil Bennett, Jeremie Mukendi, Dennis Cirkin.

Doubtful: Samuel Shashoua.

My score prediction: Spurs 3-1.

Previous meeting: Spurs 2-1.

My one to watch: Manchester City’s 17 year old Irish goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu is my one to watch for tomorrow evenings game. Bazunu who is an Ireland under 17 international, is an extremely highly rated young goalkeeper who was once strongly linked with a move to Spurs. The second year scholar is quick on his feet, has razors sharp reflexes and he is a penalty saving specialist. Making his senior debut for Irish premier division side Shamrock Rovers while still a schoolboy, Bazunu is a very talented goalkeeper who Spurs could find hard to beat tomorrow night.