Derby County’s Under-18s will lock horns with Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool on Friday afternoon to kick-off the new Premier League – North season, kick-off: 1pm.
At the Training Centre in partnership with the University of Derby, Justin Walker’s and Rory Delap’s side will be looking to fly out of the blocks and secure their first victory of the season, but they face a stern test against high-flyers of the last campaign.
Last time the two sides met was in January this year and Liverpool claimed all three points with a 2-0 victory at their Kirkby Academy thanks to strikes from Curtis Jones and Liam Millar.
Away from the fixture, it has been a close-season of change for the Under-18s as the club welcomed eight new first-year scholars for the upcoming season.
Callum Minkley, Morgan Whittaker, Jason Knight, Lee Buchanan, Sam French, Max Bird, Connor Dixon and Jordan Brown all signed two-year scholarship deals.
And all of the above, alongside the current 15 second-year scholars have the perfect opportunity to catch the eye tomorrow in what marks as the very first fixture of the U18 Premier League campaign.
This isn’t the first time that Walker’s and Delap’s side have faced a tough first game, though, as last year the Rams began their campaign at home against Manchester United.
And Derby couldn’t have experienced a much better first game after they cruised to a 4-0 victory courtesy of a goal from Luke Thomas and a hat trick from Cameron Cresswell.
With that in mind, the Rams will be hoping they can replicate last season’s starting for and begin their new campaign with a winning start.
Ahead of the fixture, attacking midfielder Jayden Mitchell-Lawson spoke to RamsTV. He said: “We’ve worked really hard in the off-season and over pre-season, everyone has come back looking in great shape and now we are all looking forward to the game.
“Everything on the training ground is in preparation for tomorrow and you have to every one of the sessions seriously.
“The game could very easily be decided by one goal so you have to treat every little of training as important as you possibly can.”
Click here to read Jayden-Mitchell-Lawson’s full pre-match thoughts now.
To keep up with all the action, supporters can follow live updates across the club’s official Academy Twitter account, whilst a full match-report and reaction will follow on dcfc.co.uk shortly after the conclusion of the game.