FA Youth Cup captain confident West Brom can beat Manchester City

Left-back George Harmon, who lives in West Bromwich and is a season ticket holder in the Smethwick End, is hoping to lead Albion to their first Youth Cup final in 43 years.

They take on the financially superior City academy in Manchester tonight, but 18-year-old Harmon insists the Baggies won’t be fazed.

“You can’t focus on them, you’ve got to focus on what you do,” said Harmon, who has been at the club since he was eight. “If we can keep our house in order, we can beat them.

“We are confident that we can. It doesn’t matter that they’re a big team, we can hold our own against them.

“You’ve always got to have confidence in your ability. As a team we’re very confident we can keep progressing and go all the way – especially with the players and togetherness we have in the team.”

Albion have already stunned Arsenal and Everton en route to the final, and the captain believes they are flourishing after playing together for years.

“Looking at City’s team and recruiting system they’ll have a couple of players from abroad or bought from other teams,” said Harmon.

“I don’t think that should faze us really, we’ve played them before, we know how good we are.

“Most of us are local, Birmingham area, West Brom area, Cheltenham is the furthest. We’ve been together for nearly 10 years, some of us. We know how to play with each other.”

This group are out to gain revenge on Manchester City after losing to them in the final of an under-15s tournament three years ago.

“We have come a long way since then as players,” said Harmon. “The togetherness as a team is better, especially now we’re all scholars and you come unto the building six times a week.

“You just know everyone so much better than at schoolboy level where you’ll only see each other at training twice a week.

“Now we’re spending the whole day together and working together so you build a relationship and that can help us push on.

“We’ve come on leaps and bounds since under-15s. You can’t really take those two games and compare them.”

Academy manager Mark Harrison has described this Youth Cup side as the best the club has produced in recent years.

Harrison said: “I passionately believe that in the next three to five years, we have enough players to fill near enough 50 per cent of our first-team. I genuinely feel we have enough talent here to do that.”

Academy products Rekeem Harper, Sam Field and Kyle Edwards have all made significant contributions in the league this season, and Edwards started against Birmingham City on Friday.

Harmon added: “It’s good for us because we can see a pathway for us. They’re showcasing what the academy can develop and what we can do.

“As long as we keep producing players, it should give everyone confidence for the pathway that’s there for us.

“You’ve just got to believe in yourself and to keep working hard and doing everything you can to get where you want to be.

“It’s possible for any footballer in an academy to go on and play for their first team.”

Albion meet Manchester City in the FA Youth Cup semi-final at the City Football Academy at 7pm, Monday, April 1. Tickets are £3 adults, £1 concessions.