There is a nervous excitement around the Rovers Under-18s as they look to transfer their league form into the FA Youth Cup.

Rovers enter the competition at the third round stage with a trip to Birmingham City as they aim to continue their fine start to the campaign.

Ryan Kidd’s side sit top of the Premier League Under-18s table, eight points clear of their closest challengers Manchester City, and having progressed into the knockout stages of the Premier League Cup.

Kidd took over the side in the summer, promoted from his role as assistant when Mike Sheron became Under-23s boss, and he has enjoyed a fine start to the role.

Assisted by Darragh Tuffy, Rovers are looking forward to their trip to St Andrew’s and progressing once again in the competition, their best recent run coming in 2019/20 when they reached the final four.

“There’s a tension around the boys because they know it means so much,” said assistant boss Tuffy.

“From a staff perspective, we know what it means to the lads, but we’re not getting carried away and we’re preparing as we would for any game.

“However, we appreciate that it’s a pressure game and we’ve seen numerous times over the years where some boys get stage fright.

The competition is the most prestigious at this age group of football, with Rovers having been knocked out in round four last time out by Arsenal at Ewood Park.

It is a big week for the Under-18s who face the Blues tonight and then host Burnley in an East Lancashire derby on Saturday morning.

“We don’t want to make a big deal out of the game, we just want to go to Birmingham City and play as we do every Saturday,” Tuffy added.

“We want to try and impose our game on Birmingham and hope our way of playing is better than theirs to get a positive result on the night.”

A number of the squad have made the step up to the Under-23s season but will be back with the scholars for tonight’s game.

Harry Leonard will lead the charge in attack, the 18-year-old having been in the goals this season, including a brace in the weekend win at Reading.

George Pratt, Jay Haddow, Charlie Weston, Georgie Gent, Harrison Wood and Adam Wharton, brother of Scott, have all played for the Under-23s and set to be involved tonight.

However, a big blow for Rovers is the absence of England Under-17 international Ash Phillips who remains sidelined by injury.

The 16-year-old has already agreed a professional deal with the club and was training regularly with the first-team prior to withdrawing from the England age group side earlier this month with an injury that is set to keep him out for the remainder of the year.

However, the Under-18s have performed well without Phillips who only had a fleeting spell in the side before progressing through to the Under-23s.

Rovers have won seven of their 10 league games, losing only once, and netted 29 goals, with Tuffy keen to see that form continue tonight.

He added: “It’s been a pleasing season so far with a lot of positive results, but the performance levels have been really high.

“We’ve been able to impose our way of playing on our opponents and the possession statistics suggest that we dominate a lot of the games.”

The game, being shown live on the Birmingham City Facebook page, is £3 for adults to attend.