West Ham United's U18s begin what they hope will be a successful FA Youth Cup campaign this evening when they travel to the bet365 Stadium to face Stoke City.
The Hammers have been in fine fettle this season in the U18 Premier League South and they were top of that league just a few weeks ago.
Steve Potts' players go into tonight's match on the back of a last-gasp 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, but they are still well in the mix to challenge for honours come the end of the season.
Head of Academy Coaching and Player Development Terry Westley says the FA Youth Cup is the priority for the Academy system this season.
"The priority will be on Tuesday against Stoke. So Nathan Trott, Declan Rice, Vashon Neufville, Dan Kemp who have been regular starters for the U23s will be rested to feature on Tuesday," he said.
"We need to try and be competitive in it. We've had three years without not going through and that hurts the players and staff as much as anybody.
"It would be nice to try and get a cup run going and with the way the U18s have been playing with Steve and Mark would suggest we would have a chance. If we play to our potential, I can see us doing well."
As mentioned, the Hammers love affair with the famous Cup competition has weakened over the last three years with three successive 3rd round exits.
They lost 3-1 away at Derby County at this stage last season and will hope to make it fourth time lucky by qualifying for the next phase.
West Ham last won the trophy in 1999 with a thumping 9-0 aggregate victory over Coventry City in the final, with a team featuring the likes of Joe Cole and Michael Carrick.
"It's not been nice the last couple of years but we're hoping to do a lot better this season. Last season we had two weeks break before the match with Derby and it didn't work in our favour at all," said U18s assistant boss Mark Phillips.
"Maybe playing three days before will work in our favour. We have needed this game (vs Spurs) to be sharper. Stoke have had a whole week's rest so it may work in our favour. We'll have to see."