Richard Beale hopes his youngsters can get the reward for their hard work this season in Thursday night’s Birmingham Senior Cup semi-final clash against Stourbridge at the War Memorial Athletic Ground (ko 7.45pm).
It was a hard-fought battle to make the last four of the tournament, but Brad Foster’s penalty heroics helped the young Baggies overcome Redditch United to give themselves a chance of reaching another coveted final.
Beale’s men now travel to Stourbridge with the prospect of another tournament final up for grabs after their Premier League Cup success last term, and Albion’s PL2 boss says his team are “excited” for the big occasion.
“It’s great for the lads to have a real focus at the end of the season," said Beale.
“If there’s nothing to play for it can feel like you’re going through the motions, but it’s their hard work and no shortage of quality which has got them into a position whereby we’re fighting on two fronts now.
“In a tough world of professional football, the boys have to become winners along with their development and those two really do go hand-in-hand if you can find that balance.
“Every time they go out there they fight and scrap and they’re the basics everyone needs before we talk about anything else.
"With all young players we try and profess to them that there are no ceilings to what they can become, especially with attitude, energy, body language and natural enthusiasm.
“We preach that to them and without that humility and desire, you can forget about anything else because those are the attributes which the manager here needs.
“They’re often the reasons young players don’t make it because they can’t consistently show their attributes, so we always pass those lessons down to the players and the boys last year, like the ones this year, have taken to it really well.
“Every game we’ve played in this competition has been tough and with it being a semi-final, with it being against Stourbridge, it’ll be a really tough occasion.
“But it’ll be a really good occasion too, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the lads put themselves to the test and how they cope with Stourbridge.
“It’s a really well-run football club down there and they’ve had good success in cup competitions over the years, and they fight and scrap too so it’ll be a really good game.
“There’s no less emphasis on any game we play here, whether that’s a friendly, first-team or a cup game.
“It’s nice we can expose the players to these occasions and it’s testament to their hard work this season that we’ve got a semi-final to look forward to, and I know the boys are excited for it.”
