Aston Villa start their defence of the FA Youth Cup against Leicester City at Villa Park on Tuesday night (ko 7pm).
The Young Lions triumphed 2-1 over Liverpool in May to lift the trophy last season.
It was the fourth time Villa had triumphed in the prestigious youth cup competition and the club’s first success since 2002.
Villa will now look to defend their success against a Foxes side who will provide a stern test.
Tickets for the third-round encounter are on sale now, priced just £5 adults and £2 under-18s – secure your seat!
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It promises to be a tough opening encounter for Villa’s Young Lions, who are currently 12th in the Under-18 Premier League South and will be facing a Foxes side flying high in third place.
But Under-18 coaches Sean Verity and Karl Hooper are excited by the challenge and insist the players are too.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Verity told VillaTV.
“To be fair, since the draw came out, we haven’t spoken too much about it as staff, to be honest with you, but I know the players have been talking about it a lot.
“It’s something that is really exciting them, while we’ve tried to stay calm in the background.
“But we’re absolutely looking forward to Tuesday.”
Villa’s Young Lions will have a slightly different look to their squad on Tuesday night from the one which secured glory back in May.
The likes of Kaine Kesler-Hayden, Seb Revan, Arjan Raikhy, Louie Barry and Brad Young, who all started the final, are currently on loan, while Carney Chukwuemeka is shining at first-team level.
And Verity explains it will be a mixture of old faces and new.
He added: “There’s a different, strange dynamic about it because everybody calls us the holders but this group aren’t actually the holders, or some of them would be.
“Obviously people will know the likes of Ben Chrisene, who scored in the final, Sil Swinkels, who played in the semi-final and final, Lamare Bogarde as well.
“So there will be one or two, also Kahrel Reddin who scored in the quarter-final away at Newcastle.
"And then there will be one or two new faces, along with one or two who didn’t play last year as first years, who are coming in.
“Hopefully we can play with a similar style and try and score a similar amount of goals throughout the competition.
“But, just looking at Tuesday first, it’s a really tough game first up.
“It will be our style against their style, and they’re very similar.
“We played them last season actually and they beat us in a cup competition, so we’ve got a bit of revenge to be had on Tuesday evening.”
Tickets are on sale now for the FA Youth Cup third-round tie or you can watch live on VillaTV+.
