Neil Critchley, one half of Crewe Alexandra's Academy Management, is raring to go in tonight's FA Youth Cup third round tie at Aston Villa.

Speaking exclusively to Crewe Alex World ahead of the big kick off, Critchley has told of his trips to view the opposition and despite knowing that they are a good strong side is still in belief that the Alex's youngsters can go ahead and bring the victory home after a successful first half of the season.

He said: "They are top of their League so they have some good players. They are a strong side, and it'll be a difficult game, but I think I saw enough of them at the weekend; it'll give us a chance to win the game. It is a game that we can win, a game that we could lose, but if we play well we are capable of winning.

"We have been in every game we have played so far this season, bar the Everton game really, no-one has really given us a real beating, so I think we'll be in the game on Wednesday, whether that is good enough to win or not we will have to wait and see."

Although the boys lost their first game in three outings last weekend, Neil insists that they will not dwell on that as it was a good performance and with the hype surrounding the trip to Villa Park the motivation for the clash is already running high.

Critch continues: "We're just excited and can't wait for it now, hopefully the nerves don't get the better of the players. It's just such a tremendous opportunity that we're all looking forward to, we just want to get the game going now."

You can watch the full interview with Neil as he looks ahead to the game on Crewe Alex World now, sign up for just £3.99 a month, or £34.99 for the season, or take advantage of a special Christmas offer of just £24.99. Click on to Crewe Alex World for more information.

We also spoke to James Collins ahead of the game which you can see on Crewe Alex World now and we will bring you all the post match interviews following the game tomorrow.