Article: Steve Garland
Cardiff City will face Barnsley at home in the Third Round of the F.A. Youth Cup.
Highlights and reaction will be on Player on Tuesday night
Cardiff City's Academy will look to maintain their proud record in the FA Youth Cup next Tuesday, when they face Barnsley in the third round at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The academy hold a strong record in the competition having been knocked out in the last 16 by semi-finalists Birmingham City last season and reached the quarter final stage in 2006-7 where they took on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Aaron Ramsey was involved as the Bluebirds pushed the young Gunners all the way, scoring in the 3-2 defeat against the club he would join just over a year later and now looks set to become a first team regular in the near future.
It just goes to show what names have progressed from the youth levels at Cardiff in recent years. As well as Rambo, Joe Ledley, Cameron Jerome, Chris Gunter, James Collins and more recently Adam Matthews have all made the step up.
And in the form of Aaron Wildig, another name could soon be added to the list of academy graduates having impressed so far this season, scoring five goals from his midfield role, form that saw him named on the bench for the senior teams trip to Barnsley recently.
But academy boss Neal Ardley will hope to have him back with his side when both sides meet again at youth level on Tuesday, saying: "Hopefully the gaffer will see this as a good opportunity for Aaron to get ninety minutes under his belt.
"At the moment he is probably more of a squad member for the senior side and he will need to keep his fitness levels up.
"But if not the lads will just have to get on with it. When one door closes another one opens for another member of the side to shine."
It appears that it is an opportunity other members in the academy have failed to take so far, with the sides only three defeats this season coming in the absence of Wildig, but Ardley insisted his side is not a one man team saying: "It just so happens that the stats show that we have played three times without Aaron this season and those are the three games we have lost.
"But when you have a player who has already signed a pro contract and is considered good enough to be on the first team bench, you are obviously going to miss him at this level."
And despite the disappointing defeat to Birmingham City last weekend, Ards has been pleased with the progress his players have made since the start of the season: "After the first game they really kicked on and went seven games unbeaten, but importantly bounced back with two more victories after they had been beaten again.
"Were fourth in the league and have been playing some good stuff of late and it will be good to see some of the characters when they play against Barnsley in the Cardiff City Stadium."
It will be the first time the youth side has played at the new stadium and Ards admitted that they are all looking forward to it: "They all got their chance to play at Ninian Park in the past couple of years of course, but they are all relishing playing at the new stadium for the first time.
"It'll be nice for all of us to be there in that capacity and it will be a positive for the players and for my self to see who can rise to the occasion and cope with the pressure of playing at big stadiums."
The tie will take place at Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday, December 1st (kick-off 7pm). Entry is just £3.00 (adults), £1.00 (concessions).
The age limit for players participating in this competition is Under-18 which means that goalkeeper Jordan Santiago, midfielder Zac Evans and forward Kai Bichard will be ineligible for the tie as they are over 18. They can play in our Under-18 Academy matches as clubs are allowed to include three over-age players for these games.
Tickets can be purchased at Cardiff City Stadium on the evening of the game. We hope to see many of you here to support some of the Bluebirds stars of the future.
