Our debut outing in 2025/26 will see us welcome Fulham to the Joie Stadium on Friday 5 December, with kick-off scheduled for 19:00 (UK), and the game will also be available to watch live on CITY+.
14 new faces have joined Reiss’ ranks, making our Under-18s side once again one of the youngest in the Under-18 Premier League North and FA Youth Cup.
In the league, they’ve already faced up to the challenge of fighting to retain the north league title, and with a five-point league at the top of the table, our young boys in blue are moving closer to achieving the feat each week.
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But it hasn’t come without difficulties. In a handful of games, Reiss’ youngsters have had to fight from a goal down to earn a win. But it’s in those moments he has seen tenacity, togetherness and almost incomprehensible levels of energy.
And in his interview with City Studios, to preview our FA Youth Cup campaign, Reiss explained that those attributes will likely make the difference.
“This age group, or this season’s Under-18s, I have the feeling there is a little bit more energy, a little bit more atmosphere in the training sessions,” began Reiss.
It feels like a different flavour when I think about this Under-18s team compared to last season.
“And you can feel this in nearly everything we do. Sometimes it can be a boring drill or an exciting game at the end, you can feel there is always a good atmosphere, a good energy and also in the games.
“We had a lot of games where we were not starting the best way, but we came back very good at least in the second half to turn the result.
“So I think this is something special in this group, that they are able to increase and have a good atmosphere to increase the energy also.
“I expect energy and intensity in this game [against Fulham],” Reiss continued.
“Yes we want to see good football. We want to see good patterns, possession, phases, the way we defend, ideas, quality of course.
“But at least everyone [the fans] should have the feeling ‘wow, what intensity’.
“And resilient enough to deal with every mistake, weak phases, and to deal with it and say ‘it doesn’t matter too much for us’. As a team we can support each other and can we create an atmosphere again.
“It doesn’t matter what happens at the end, winning or losing, in terms of after the game, everyone should have the feeling [of] wow, that was impressive in terms of energy, atmosphere.
“This is what we would like to see from the team.”
Watch Reiss’ FA Youth Cup preview in full via the video above…
