SOUTHEND United’s youth team kick off their season tomorrow having set their sights high for the next nine months.
The Shrimpers host Brentford at Boots & Laces on Saturday.
And youth coach Danny Heath revealed his players want to make it a campaign to remember.
“The players’ target is to win the league which would be nice,” said Heath.
“They also want a good run in the FA Youth Cup and the EFL Youth Alliance Cup and they’re keen to do well.
“My hopes for the season are to see players get in and around the squad for the reserve games.
“Under the gaffer (Kevin Maher), Benno (Mark Bentley) and Daz (Darren Currie) the boys will get the opportunity if they’ve earnt it.
“Even better would be for them to be in and around the first team whether that’s in training or in games but that’s our aim.”
Blues’ under 18 side have prepared well during pre-season.
And Heath is looking forward to finally getting the campaign underway against the Bees.
“It seems a long time coming because the rest of the teams started their season last weekend,” said Heath.
“There’s an odd number of teams in the league this season so we didn’t have a game but we’re looking forward to Saturday and we’ve had a good pre-season.
“We’ve played a variety of games and opposition and every player who has been available has played at two or more 90 minute matches.
“Physically the boys are in a good place going into the game.
“Brentford have had to form a team quite quickly as part of the new rules and they’ve got be at least a cat three club by the start of next season.
“They’ve put together a team in a short period of time but it’s a game against Premier League opposition for us.
“We’ve watched footage from their game against Cambridge last week and we’ve done a lot of tactical work about how we will play in and out of possession.”
And that will now also mirror the way the first team play.
“How the youth team want to play this year all links to the principles of play the gaffer, Benno and Daz want from the first team,” said Heath.
“We’ve got that link now so that when youth team players step up into the reserves or the first team then the messages are the same.”
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