Youth Team skipper Ciaran Clark

Website editor Geoff Coleman takes a look ahead to tomorrow night's FA Youth Cup semi-final clash with Chelsea.

Music fans love to hear a new artist or band long before they hit the big time and it's great to see a comedian performing in a backstreet pub before he gets his big TV break.

For football fans the thrill is being able to say: "I saw him play for the youth team and knew straight away he'd make it."

Of course we conveniently forget the other players who might have fallen by the wayside on the often treacherous path from promising kid to first-team star.

Older fans speak of how they spotted a tiny Gordon Cowans in the victorious 1972 FA Youth Cup run. Personally I saw Steven Davis, Liam Ridgewell, Peter Whittingham, Luke and Stefan Moore win the same competition 30 years later.

Gabby Agbonlahor, Craig Gardner and Gary Cahill were involved as Villa finished runners-up in 2004.

So what of the class of 2008?

There is undoubtedly talent in the side - from inspirational skipper Ciaran Clark at the back through to Nathan Delfouneso at the front. Barry Bannan has sublime skill in midfield and wide men Marc Albrighton and Harry Forrester can terrorise defenders.

That's not to say the players not mentioned will fail to make the grade. The simple fact is, predicting who will go all the way from youth team through to Barclays Premier League star is an inexact science at best.

When I first joined Villa as website editor in 2001 I was convinced Stephen Cooke was destined for big things. I was in good company too. Academy coach and Villa legend Sid Cowans thought the same.

Things did not work out for Cookie and the one-time reserves captain moved on after just four senior appearances.

Recent history at Villa suggests youth will be given a chance to shine. Agbonlahor has been a virtual ever present since Martin O'Neill took over. Gardner and Isaiah Osbourne have played their part this season, while Stephen O'Halloran and Delfouneso both have senior squad numbers.

That said, Academy Director Bryan Jones believes O'Neill has raised the standard for Young Lions aiming to star for Villa on the Barclays Premier League stage.

He recently explained: "Since Martin O'Neill has come in the bar has been raised yet again. To produce a player that five or six years ago could play in the first-team was slightly easier than it is now.

"If we were 15th in the league one or two managers wanted to rely on young players coming through.

"What Martin's done is to get us in and around the top-six, so that bar is much higher and for a kid to break through now is even more difficult."

Over the last 12-18 months I've seen enough of the current crop of youngsters to know they will give it a good go.

And under the guidance of Jones, Tony McAndrew, Cowans, Steve Burns and the rest of the superb Academy staff, they will be offered all the guidance and support needed.

The rest of course is up to them.

So why not pop along to Villa Park for the FA Youth Cup semi-final second-leg against Chelsea (March 19 - ko 7pm) so in future you can say: "I saw him when he played for the youth team."