Everton Under-18s face Southampton tonight 7pm

Everton Under-18s face Southampton in the FA Youth Cup fourth round at Goodison Park and academy winger Michael Donohue admits they’ll have to be at their best to beat their opponents.

Donohue more than played his part in the previous round victory over Stevenage, causing problems throughout the tie and it was he who provided the cross for the opening goal in the first minute of extra-time.

But Donohue, who joined the academy at the age of eight, is predicting the Saints to provide a different type of threat on Wednesday evening.

Donohue told evertontv: “I expect Southampton to be similar to us. They are known for producing talented players and they’ve got quite a few of them playing in the Premier League now that they’ve produced.

“They are a good footballing side and it’ll be different to the Stevenage game; that was physical but against Southampton it will be a good footballing game.

“The two academies are going to try and prove which one is the best and at the end of the day we want that to be us.

“We’ll put our best team out and they’ll put their best team out and we’ll both try and play football and the better footballing team will come out on top, and hopefully that’s us.”

Donohue helped the Under-18s become Premier League champions last season and the 18-year-old is hungry for more success.

He added: “We want to win [the Youth Cup]. We feel like we’ve got a good squad this year, we haven’t just got 11 players that we can put out, we’ve got a good squad overall.

“We can play anyone and expect to come away with a win and we’ll need that as the competition goes on - there may be a few injuries and people can come in.

“We’ve got a really good team and we are all expecting to win it and this is just another obstacle on the way that we need to overcome. We need to win this game, focus on that and hopefully we’ll progress through the tournament and end up winning it.”

Admission at Goodison is £3 for adults and £1 for concessions, with cash turnstiles in operation in the Upper Bullens. Kick-off is at 7pm.