West Ham United v Southampton
FA Youth Cup, Sixth Round
08 March 2005
Upton Park

West Ham's Academy Director Tony Carr insists his side will feel no fear when they face Southampton in the Quarter-Finals of The FA Youth Cup tonight.

Southampton knocked out Arsenal in the previous round and are strong favourites to progress to the Semi-Final stage of the competition.

But West Ham, who won the competition back in 1999 are expecting a big crowd at Upton Park and hope it can spur them onto victory.

And with his side having already beaten Gillingham, Blackburn and Leyton Orient (3-2 in the last round) Carr is hoping for another heroic performance against the Saints.

He said: "Southampton have been wiping the board with everybody this season, so we'll show them respect, but we certainly won't fear them.

"If we can get another crowd above 3,000 for the game, it'll create a good atmosphere. That lifts the boys, brings a bit more out of them and, if we catch Southampton at the right time, we can win the tie.

"We've been behind in every round this year and come back to win, so the boys have shown great character and they'll give it their best shot again in this one.

"This is the sort of game where whoever wins it on the night is going to have a fantastic chance of winning the competition.

"I think that they are favourites and Southampton are the team to beat. They have only lost one game which was away against Arsenal, so we are going to try and do what very few clubs have done this season.

"We have got to go into the game believing that we can do it, as I have said they are the massive favourites, but sometimes the favourites don¹t always win."

West Ham have not reached the Semi-Final stage of the competition for the last six-years, but goalkeeper Darren Behcet is hopeful his side will have enough quality to knock the Saints out of the cup.

Behcet said: "Southampton are a very dangerous team. They play as a unit and work really hard, and we’re definitely going to have to be at our best against them.

"Preparations have gone pretty well, although all the snow we had last week caused a bit of disruption and we’ve done quite a bit of work inside in the gym.

"But we’ve been outside over the weekend and I think everybody is ready and really looking forward to the game."