HEAD of Youth coaching Mike Pejic will expect a strong and physical game when his young Pilgrims take on Millwall in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup at Home Park tonight.
Argyle meet the Lions on the back of an impressive 2-1 victory over Premier League academy side Fulham at Home Park in the last round and Pej says it is up to his protégés to carry that form into tonight's match.
Millwall reached this stage of the competition with an impressive 3-1 away win at Sheffield Wednesday in round three, having beaten Luton and Dagenham and Redbridge in earlier rounds.
He said: "We've seen Millwall play and they are very strong, physical, direct team.
"They compete very well for 90 minutes and when they went a goal down against Sheffield Wednesday early on they fought back for a victory and put a lot of effort into their attacking play.
"We did really well against Fulham and they scored towards the end which put a little bit of pressure on us but apart from that we controlled the game and tonight we're going to have to do the same - as soon as we win the ball we're going to have to retain it and play football."
Having scored ten goals in their last three Youth Cup outings including a 5-0 thrashing of the Daggers, the young Lions certainly know how to find the goal and it is something that Pej and his team have been working on eliminating.
"They [Millwall] don't mess about," said Pej. "They get the ball forward very early.
"They also play three up front, which is very unusual to come across. But they seem to apply it quite well and obviously so far for them, they've come up trumps.
"They have three lively front lads and we will have to stop the supply to them.
"It's going to be an interesting game."
Should the Pilgrims be successful tonight, they will face either Charlton or Premier League giants Tottenham at Home Park in the next round but Pej says his side are firmly set on the task in hand.
"You have to take each game as is comes and tonights game will be very physical, hard fought game," he said.
"We're going to have to cope against any barrage they put up against us and try and get it down and play our game and work it and if we do that, then I'll be more than happy."
Chris Parsons
