Chris Hughton took the brave decision to drop all 11 players from the 6 v 0 Villa win to field a very young side in the League Cup 2nd round on Wednesday night. Not only did the gamble pay off, but it also showed the fans that we do have strength in depth, albeit through a very talented crop of teenagers.

The starting XI contained no fewer than six players aged 19 or under and only one player over 30 (Lovenkrands – though promising youngster Shola will hit the big 3 0 soon) and the average age of the side was 21. If Andy Carroll had started instead of Lovenkrands the average age would have been down to 20.

Looking at the lineup before kick off I must admit that I expected a defeat, but a defeat that showed one or two of those lads have promise. In the end we could have won the game by a far bigger margin with a number of shots on target.

Accrington Stanley built this seasons team on the acquisition of no fewer than 11 free transfers in the summer – they played some nice football scoring with a couple of great strikes. What I loved more than anything though was that when the lower league side of blokes tried to bully our younguns, our younguns showed them that they were no pushovers and gave as good as they got. Ranger, Ferguson and Vuckic all involved in various battles and scuffles throughout though Vuckic (who is a big unit considering he only just turned 18) may have been lucky to avoid a red having swung his elbow into a Stanley Players head.

Surprise performance of the evening went to Kazenga LuaLua – my man of the match. Ive seen Kazenga a few times from juniors up to reserves and first team, and until Wednesday I had not seen anything from him to suggest that he was good enough to play at the very top. He was outstanding in this game – his work rate was fantastic, he displayed great pace and willingness to attack the full back and even more impressively he regularly looked up before delivery and swung in some great crosses – something his brother rarely managed to do! He struck the post late on after a great run, he really deserved it to go in! Talk has resurfaced of another loan move to Brighton for him and I think that would be a great move. Regular first team football will aid his physical development and Brighton manager Gus Poyet would be an inspirational role model for him.

I love seeing young players come through. I would love it even more if there were a few more Geordies in there (does that sound a bit Freddy Shepherdish?!) but a promising league of nations side is almost as good.

Lineup, age and nationality/ hometown:

Tim Krul 22 Holland
Ryan Taylor 26 Scouser
Shane Ferguson 19 Northern Ireland
Tamas Kadar 20 Hungary
James Tavernier 18 Bradford
Kazenga LuaLua 19 D.R. Congo/ England eligible
Haris Vuckic 18 Slovenia
Ryan Donaldson 19 Toon (St Cuthbert’s lad like my good self!)
Nile Ranger 19 Cockney
Shola 29 Nigeria Toon
Peter Lovenkrands 20 Denmark

Over the coming season I am going to follow one or two of these youngsters and keep you up to date with their development – along with some of the other good young players in our ranks (Forster on loan at Celtic, Phil Airey and others)

We are in the draw for the 3rd round and we have a team of refreshed first teamers for Wolves away on Saturday. Happy days.

Deadline Day is Approaching
Hatem Ben Arfa is in town today after NUFC and Marseille agreed terms. Personal terms still have to be agreed.

Rumour has it that NUFC have approached Spurs over a loan for Robbie Keane though this is unconfirmed.

Tiote completed his move on Friday.

Hughton hopes to conclude the contract renewal of Steven Taylor and does not want to sell him. Personally I hope he stays.

Follow me on Twitter @MarcSDuffy

src="http://easytwitterbuttons.com/btns/twitterbutton18.png" title="Button By:

EasyTwitterButtons.com" border="0"/>