Elliot Returns

Defender Elliot Ward makes a welcome return to action for Tuesday night's FA Youth Cup match against Fulham at Upton Park.

Tony Carr's U18's get back to action after recent postponements for the youngsters and he says:

"We are looking forward to it and are very hopeful we can do well; we didn't do ourselves justice just before the Christmas break when both our U17s and our U19s lost to Fulham, but hopefully at U18 level we can put up a better show and get into the next round.

"What is built into the academy system is a break for two weeks over Christmas but they have been back in since January 2nd."

Fulham made a stuttering start to their campaign, beating Dulwich Hamlet on penalties after scoring an equaliser in injury time and then failing to add to that in extra time, but Tony is not underestimating them, and he says:

"We hope we can perform as well as we did against Oadby Town in the last round."

Talking generally, he adds:

"There has been a lot of progress with the young players; Johnson has pushed on into senior football and very rarely plays U19 football now.

"Anton Ferdinand, Elliot Ward, Tommy Laws, Mitchell Cole and Darren Bluett have all pushed on and played well in the reserves while people like McMahon and Mehmet are all establishing claims at reserve team level.

"What it means of course is that I lose them at U19 level but that promotes the younger ones from underneath so our results can fluctuate from one week to the next because of the team selection.

"But if boys make progress that is what we are all about."

SQUAD: George Sealey, Tommy Laws, Brent Tattam, Anton Ferdinand, Elliot Ward, Phil Lumsden, Marce Collington, Graeme Carrick, Danny Morris, Greg Pearson, Mitchell Cole, Darren Bluett, James Marrable, Mark Noble, Trent McClenahan, Danny Bunce.

* The FA Premier League U17s game at Crystal Palace, originally postponed from Saturday, 11th January 2003, will now take place on Friday, 31st January 2003 at 2 o'clock at Copers Cope Road.