Steve Davis looks forward to tomorrow's final game of the season

Steve Davis has praised the work of the club’s Academy staff as he prepares his ‘home grown’ eleven for tomorrow’s final game of the season against Walsall. The Alex boss will pick an eleven of Academy graduates to make football history, but he stresses that it is no gimmick and his side has nearly 1,000 matches of experience between them.  The only player to make his debut for the club tomorrow will be goalkeeper Ben Garratt.

Ahead of the final game, Steve told the club’s official web-site:  “I am looking forward to tomorrow when I will play all the boys together. It is very exciting for everyone associated with the club. That is from the chairman, the board, all the staff, the players’, through to all the supporters.

“It is something we should be hugely proud of and these occasions do not happen enough. There is a lot of hard work that goes into producing young players that you don’t see and they deserve the credit for that, not me.

“They work extremely hard in all weathers to try and bring them through. They deserve all the credit because I only get them when they are 17 and 18 to play in the first-team.

He added: “It will be a good team and it isn’t us putting a lot of kids out and hoping for the best. They have a lot of experience and the only player making his debut will be Ben Garratt and he has represented England at youth level. Seven or eight of them would have played in the team for much of the season.”