Birmingham City kids can't wait to tackle Liverpool
Blues are relishing the underdogs tag in this season's FA Youth Cup final four.
Tomorrow they take on Liverpool in the semi-final first leg at St Andrew's (7pm) aware that they have already been written off in most quarters.
Academy manager Terry Westley said: "That's been a big thing for us. I know the chairman said to me that we'd done well and I wasn't 100 per cent sure if he knew who else was involved.
"You've got Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool. That's a good group to be with. They spend an awful lot of money on their Academies.
"I'm not saying we don't, the board here are backing us and we're having a go. But that's a big group of teams to be involved with.
"To pitch yourself against Liverpool, the majority of the people out there say 'you've done well to get to the semi-finals, bad luck it's them'. I think our staff and players might see it a bit differently."
Arsenal are 2-1 up from the first leg against holders Manchester City.
Blues are set to make just one change to the starting team that defeated Watford in the quarter-finals.
Jack Rutter is injured so Slovakian Jakub Hronec is likely to line-up at right-back.
Westley was alerted to Hrncec by a contact George Burley introduced him to when they were at Derby County.
"Jakub's a national team player, probably the best of the group they've got at that age, under-17 wise," said Westley.
"He will come in and join us on a full-time basis as a scholar next year, but he has been with us on and off over the past 12 months."
Jordon Mutch remains sidelined due to a problem caused by growth plates in his foot, but he could soon start running again with a view to being ready for pre-season.
