Good win for the youth team this morning. They beat Man Utd 2-1 having been 1-0 down in the first minute. Goals from O'keefe (i think) and Raf de Vita secured the 3 points that keep Rovers 3rd in their league.

I wouldn't like to say, Certainly the facilities now enjoyed by the first teamwere fundemental in attracting some of the young foriegn talent to the club. I would just say, that 3 years ago Blackburn Rovers had an outstanding Academy. Now they have an Acedemy. There has been changing in the running of the set up as well, 3 coaches have moved on recently and so has the recrutement officer Martin Glover, none of these would have any effect on the Youth team though, who incidentally won 1-0 at Stoke today.

I've been reading this thread with interest, as my son is at the Acadamy, playing for the youth team. In fact he made his first League start for the reserves against Liverpool last Monday evening. One of the things not mentioned so far is the changes made by Mark Hughes last season, where he decided the first team would take over the Academy facilities, the academy beig moved "downstairs" to what was the first team training ground. Now the facilities are still very good, in comparision to many rival centre of excellences' eg. Preston, Burnley, etc. However, the state of the art Academy facilities that Rovers could boast are now no more. The Academy does not now compare with those at Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, (Everton is dire). these are the clubs that Rovers are competing with for all the young talent inn the North West.