Guiseley AFC’s U-18 Academy side will face Brighouse Town at Nethermoor on Thursday night (7pm) as they look to extend their run in the FA Youth Cup, writes Rachel O’Connor.
Dave Currie’s young charges will face Brighouse Town in this clash with Town having defeated Golcar 3-2 in a close Preliminary Round tie whilst Guiseley hammered Yorkshire Amateur 7-0 away from home. In the Extra Preliminary Round Guiseley defeated visitors Dronfield 3-0 with goals from Marley Spence, George Sebine and Mason Donaldson.
Spence went on to celebrate his 18th birthday in the 7-0 win at Bracken Edge in a game in which George Sebine continued his excellent form of last season with a hat-trick. Other goals in this victory came from Lucas Alexander (2), Zac Rushworth and Jack Lorriman.
In the National League U-19 Alliance Guiseley are the current North Section champions after a great season in 2023-24, a season in which Currie’s production line of talent saw yet another young graduate join a Football League club with left-back K’Marni Miller signing for Wigan, where he joins former Guiseley product Josh Stones.
This production line has produced three full international players in Jacob Brown (Scotland), Joel Wilson (Cayman Islands) and Tabish Hussain (Pakistan) and also had Josh Stones and Jakub Hebda gain England Schools U-18 caps.
Brown has been the stand-out player so far having played in the Premier League with Luton Town after a journey which took him from Guiseley Academy to Barnsley then Stoke City before arriving in the Premier League last season.
Another former Academy player Ben Whitfield signed for a Premier League club in Bournemouth whilst others have gone to Morecambe (Tom Stewart), Sheffield United (Jake Young), Sunderland (Nathan Newall) and Stockport County (Ellis Farrar). Farrar, 20, has now joined 1874 Northwich and played against Guiseley’s first team in last Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup tie.
Like last season’s title winning U-19 side the Academy are having a slow start in the league having lost 3-0 to Chester and 3-2 to Solihull Moors as the new line up beds in. They step down to Under-18s for the FA Youth Cup but still have a lot of experience with centre-back Freddie Westfall regularly playing men’s football on a dual registration with Steeton. He has been on the bench for the first team recently along with George Sebine (who got a late first team debut as a sub in last Saturday’s game) while midfielder Max Dickinson has also signed first team forms.
Many of the players in the FA Youth Cup squad have joined the Academy’s Scholarship Programme having come through the club’s Centre of Excellence that runs teams from Under-11s to Under-16s in the national Junior Premier League.
For their part Brighouse Town have also established an Academy with education and play in the Education and semi-pro Football Academy (ESPA) West Yorkshire section. They play league games against Mossley, Ossett United, Rushall Olympic, Belper Town and Sandbach.
Thursday’s game will provide an opportunity to see some of West Yorkshire’s best young footballing talent battling it out in a cup tie. Admission to the game is priced at just £3 adults, £2 concessions/U18s and £1 U11s. Tickets can be purchased at the turnstiles on the night by cash or card payment.
