Jamal Campbell-Ryce

Posh U18s face The U's in the semi-final of the league cup.

Peterborough U18s welcome Colchester United U18s to the idverde Training Ground on Tuesday morning (11am) in the semi-final of the Under-18 Professional Development League Cup.

The under 18s reached the final four of the competition after a 2-1 victory over Doncaster Rovers and have been on an excellent run of form since the turn of the year, winning their last seven games on the bounce in all competitions. Despite this, manager Jamal Campbell-Ryce wants his player to remember what got them into the semi-final in the first place.

“Everyone buzzing that we have seven wins on the bounce in all competitions and everybody’s confidence is up, working hard and believing, but it’s also about keeping them humble and reminding them what has got us to this place. 

“First and foremost, it’s about outworking your opposition because if you don’t do that, you won’t win any game of football. Second of all, it’s just playing our style of football and not falling into the trap of the opposition dictating our style of football. We have stuck to that over the last few weeks and each player, whoever started or has been used as a substitute, have been doing that,” Campbell-Ryce said.

The U’s booked their place in the semi-final of the Professional Development League Cup after a 1-0 victory over and Campbell-Ryce is expecting a tough morning, but wants his players to maintain the recent performances that have seen them rise to third in the table and into the final of the U18 David Joyce Cup.

“Every week I say it doesn’t matter who you play against, all these games are tough. They will have a bit of quality and they have also reached the semi-final, but my job is to make sure we focus on what we are doing as that’s where we are reaping the rewards.

“I have been saying to the player over the last few weeks that we are in the final of the County Cup, currently in the semi-final and third in the table. If we want to continue that, the performances and work rate has to be maintained as we want to be there by the end of the season. We have goals that we want to achieve, but it’s game by game for us."