Huge Irish interest in FA Youth Cup Semi-Finals

The second legs of the FA Youth Cup semi-finals take place this evening, Wednesday 13th April with a significant Irish presence in both ties.

Tottenham Hotspur will attempt to overturn a 2 nil deficit when they welcome Ipswich Town to White Hart Lane, the game kicking off at 7.00pm.

Surprisingly there is no Irish player in the current Spurs Youth side so all eyes will be on the quartet of Irish Underage Internationals lining out for Ipswich Town. Cork born striker Billy Clarke, who scored one of the first leg goals, was a member of Sean McCaffrey’s under 19 squad for the recent visits to Italy and Spain. Clarke is joined by goalkeeper Shane Supple, who has been on the bench for the Ipswich Championship side on a number of occasions this season. Midfielders, Owen Garvan and Cathal Lorden make up the Irish foursome.

The second semi-final sees Wolverhampton Wanderers who have defender, Conor Rafferty and midfielder, Stephen Gleeson who was a member of the under 17 squad in the recent UEFA Elite Group campaign in their ranks, meet Southampton at Molineaux with a 7.30pm start.

Southampton hold a one goal advantage from the first leg, which was scored by under 19 International Leon Best, who earlier this season spent some time on loan at QPR.