Southend United's youngsters will play in front of the bright lights tonight when they take on Walton and Hersham at Roots Hall in the FA Youth Cup first round.

The Shrimpers will field a mixture of their under-17 and 19 teams against the non-leaguers as players have to be below 18 years of age to qualify for this competition.

However, Blues' babes didn't enjoy the ideal preparation for the part-timers' visit, which has to be settled tonight, as they suffered heavy defeats against Brighton.

The under-17s were thrashed 7-1 at home by the Seagulls, while the under-19s crashed 6-0 in Sussex.

But Southend's youth coach Ricky Duncan believes his lads will put things right tonight as they try to emulate last season's team, who eventually bowed out 3-0 at West Ham in the third round.

"The boys are hurting from the weekend and they will want to take their frustrations out on Walton and Hersham this evening," he said.

"This is a rare occasion for the players to perform at Roots Hall in front of a big crowd.

"And as a coach I don't need to motivate the lads as they know this is a very special match. I want them to enjoy the night, but I want to see them get us into the next round as well."

Only the East Stand will be opening this evening and admission is £3 for adults and £1 children.

Southend (from): Bradford, Zinga, Wilson, Smith, D Lunan, Plummer, Clark, Cleverley, Coburn, England, Bourne, Illit, Kennet, Budd, Williams, Grey.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.