BURNLEY’S youngsters will bid for a place in the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals tonight when they face Nottingham Forest in the fifth round.

The Clarets under-18s have seen off AFC Wimbledon and then Cardiff City at Turf Moor last Tuesday to reach this stage, and know victory this evening will book a last-eight showdown at Turf Moor against Tottenham or Manchester United.

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Terry Pashley and Andy Farrell take their side to the East Midlands to face a Forest outfit who have Category Two status for their academy and beat MK Dons and West Bromwich Albion in previous rounds.

Goals from Brandon Wilson, Jamie Frost and Bradley Jackson took the Clarets to victory over the Bluebirds seven days ago, and Pashley hopes his youngsters can build on that performance.

“It’s come around quickly,” he said.

“There’s been just a week between fixtures so hopefully it is a case of building on momentum.

“We played well in the first half especially last week, we could have put the game to bed by half time.

“The message will be to try and carry that on and perform to those standards for 90 minutes tonight.

“With the weather and the work that is going on at Gawthorpe we haven’t managed to get out as much as we would have liked, but that was the case before the previous round so not much has changed.

“We didn’t have a league game over the weekend either so that should help us tonight.”

Forest’s academy side haven’t suffered defeat since October 25, a run of nine games which has included seven wins.

They beat the MK Dons 3-2 at home in the third round of this competition, before a convincing 3-0 success at the Hawthorns a couple of weeks ago.

“They’re a strong, physical side,” said Pashley. “It’s a match against a Category Two academy and they’ve got some good players, but then so have we and we will be telling the lads that it’s about what we do on the night.”

The Clarets reached the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup in 2011/12, losing to Blackburn Rovers, but in the last two years they have gone out to Manchester City and Manchester United.

Pashley is well aware that with a quarter-final place on the line, there could be extra pressure under the lights at the City Ground tonight.

“As you get deeper in a cup competition there is a little more pressure,” he said.

“It’s only natural and in the latter stages you tend to be playing the big teams, although the FA Cup on Saturday showed that isn’t always the case.

“It’s another game under floodlights at a famous old league ground, so I’m sure it’s one the boys will enjoy and it will be a great experience for them.”