Head coach Darren Sylvester said his side are ready to go for the inter-insular clash.
‘They’re a really, really good bunch,’ he said.
‘They’ve grown and developed over the course of the last two seasons we’ve had with them, and are a real tight-knit group, a lot of them are friends outside of it, which I think helps, especially when it’s getting to backs to the wall time and everyone is fighting for each other.
‘We know it’s not just a tactical and technical game, it’s also a physical game and Murattis can often be won and lost in terms of physicality as much as which team played the best football.
‘It’s an interesting one, the under-16s, because I think of the group as having gone on a bit of a journey. They go through the under-15s, and that’s their first year for inter-insular football since the under-11s, really, and then under-16s is building on that.
‘They’ve come of an age where they’ve started to play U18 and maybe senior football, so you see a real development, maybe more so than at any other time in their careers, because they’re all growing physically as well. They’re all taller than me, and most of them start to fill out as well, which is what they need in terms of playing senior football.’
Many faces in the squad were part of last season’s Star Trophy group and Sylvester expects it will be the same for Jersey.
‘I think their group will be very similar to what it was last season. As we know, it went to penalties and we were unfortunate, we were the team that came out losing that. We remember some of the more prominent players in their team, but I think we’re going to be concentrating more on our players and us having the ball and what we can do with it. as opposed to Jersey,’ he said.
The U16s have had some matches in preparation for the Muratti against York City, Eastbourne, and Newhaven over in the UK.
‘We’ve had a good year, we’ve managed to get the team away to the UK on three occasions so that’s always very useful in terms of the set-up with Guernsey in terms of not playing in a league.
'We need as many opportunities as we can get to get away and challenge and help the the players develop.’
The match kicks off at 12.30pm tomorrow at Victoria Park.
GUERNSEY U16 SQUAD
Alex Le Cheminant, Lewis Blondel, Charlie Bolger, Rufus Bousfield, Joe Bradley, Oskar Cleal, Freddie Cochrane, Wilf Dorrian, Matt Hind, Leo Marley, Alex Mills, Taylen Mills, Jacques Mourant, Austin Nobes, Elden Roberts, Alfie Torode.
