We travel to Carrington Road on Saturday 20 January, with kick-off scheduled for 11:00 (UK). And the game will be shown live on CITY+ with commentary from Alistair Mann available from the first whistle.
Wilkinson and his players expect the meeting to be one of the most difficult in the calendar, with United sat at the league summit with 11 consecutive wins and have conceded just seven goals.
But the head coach is confident that if the City youngsters focus on our own style of play, we could be the first team to take points from United this season.
“I think we just have to try and make the game as much about us as we can,” began Wilkinson.
“We are at our best when we don’t concentrate too much on the opposition and instead just try and control what we can do and play the way we want to play.
“I think that’s what these players have grown up on for years so to change that is not necessary. It’s about concentrating on ourselves, being the best possible versions of ourselves as a team and as an individual and sticking to our game plan no matter what events occur in the game.
“It’s just about believing in ourselves really, I don’t think we need to do too much different. I think we just need to give the best possible account of ourselves that we can and I think if we do that it gives us a real good chance of winning any game of football that we play.
“They’ve [United] obviously had an outstanding start to the season, the fact they haven’t dropped any points shows they’ve done something right and to win 11 games is a really impressive achievement in any level of football.
“But for us it’s just another game where we’ve got to back ourselves and go into it really excited about it and try and be the team that breaks that record.”
United will be looking to bounce back to winning ways after a shock FA Youth Cup exit at the hands of Swindon Town earlier this month.
City, on the other hand, head to Carrington undefeated on the road, including two tough away trips to Watford and West Ham United in the FA Youth Cup which saw Wilkinson’s side come out victorious with 2-0 wins in both, with the latter City’s most recent test.
Wilkinson highlighted the importance of the momentum gained in our FA Youth Cup result and how we need to attack the latter end of the campaign with as much energy and excitement as possible, starting with United.
“To come so soon after the Christmas break and have such a difficult game away from home and a difficult environment, the performance [against West Ham] was really pleasing in terms of going away from home, keeping a clean sheet and sort of overcoming the problems that we faced on the night,” said Wilkinson.
“So it was really pleasing because it keeps the momentum going and it gives us a lot to look forward to in terms of we are still in four competitions, we’re chasing a little in the league, but we’ve still got this month alone the quarter-finals of the Under-17 and Under-18 Premier League Cups.
“And then the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup in quick succession so it’s just great to keep all of those plates spinning and gives us the opportunity to really attack the second half of the season.
“We’re blessed with a squad that for such a young group of players, they’ve already played in plenty of challenging environments, plenty of big games whether at club or international level, so I think it’s just something you have to look ahead to with excitement and a degree of nerves is absolutely fine and probably normal.
“Games like this are ultimately how we learn about the players and give them as many experiences that we can to get them as close to first-team football as we possibly can and these are the sort of games they want to play in.
“So it’s something that hopefully we can look forward to with excitement and we know we’ve got a few of these moments in the next few weeks and therefore a lot to look forward to.”
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