Our development squad return to PL2 action following midweek drama in the EFL Trophy and face Blackburn at Kingsmeadow, with kick-off scheduled for 12 noon.

Both teams have been impressive of late, with the away side unbeaten in their last four, winning three of their last five games, while our young Blues are undefeated in their last six PL2 matches.

The tie is set up to be an exciting one but with the high of making it through to the knockout stages of the Papa Johns Trophy as group winners, Jude Soonsup-Bell believes that the team will only have eyes for victory.

Jude Soonsup-Bell's words

Soonsup-Bell gave an insight into how he felt in his last outing and how he hopes the goal he scored can help to kick-start his season from a personal perspective.

'It was a game I felt we should’ve won, but it feels good to be back on scoresheet again. Hopefully I can carry on the scoring form to help the team win in the next game against Blackburn.'

'The team is in good form at the moment and we look to carry the form for the rest of the season to be title contenders.'

The striker grabbed his first goal of the season off the bench in last week's draw against Manchester United.

'My focus is to help the team, as long as I can help the team in other ways, the goalscoring will come.'

Last time out

Our young Blues in their most recent fixture put on a late show to overturn Leyton Orient's lead and beat the League Two outfit 3-2 in the last group game of the Papa Johns Trophy.

Omari Hutchinson scored a great solo goal to give us the lead but we were pegged back and then went behind with six minutes between the home side's goals. It was looking like defeat was on the cards but second-half substitute Malik Mothersille came off the bench to strike twice and give us the win.

In his first appearance for the Under-21 team this season, the young forward latched onto Hutchinson passes and slotted away both times.

Last term

Last season's home game against Blackburn was a tight affair with limited chances and a Sam Burns penalty in the opening five minutes was enough for the away side to seal victory.

Multiple players involved in last year's squad will be involved again this year with a chance to defeat an opponent we have not beaten at home since the 2020/21 campaign. George Nunn was the goalscorer on that occasion.

Our opponents

Besides the top two teams in the PL2, no other club has a better record in the last five games than Rovers.

They currently sit in ninth place on 10 points and are only three behind our young Blues. This means that victory for the away side could potentially see both teams switch places in the standings.

Both clubs have identical records as we have won three games each this season. The similarities do not stop there though as the away side's last loss in all competitions was a 4-1 defeat away at second placed Arsenal. Similarly, our development squad's last loss in the PL2 was also 4-1 against the young Gunners.

Academy news

In other news, our Under-18s' scheduled fixture for today against West Ham has been postponed. A new date for this fixture will be announced in due course.