United Youth will play the Cumberland U18s in a friendly fixture at the Sheepmount on Tuesday 23 October, ko 2pm.

Eric Kinder told us: "There are a couple of reasons for us playing this friendly, and not least because I want to give 90 minutes to those lads who haven't been getting the chance recently.

It will also give me an opportunity to have a look at what the Cumberland side have within our age group. They have a squad of about 20 players, and they have said that they will play them all, so I'll be able to see what kind of lads they have in their set up. They are the best 20 players in the region, so it will be good to go up against them.

I'll be using a very young side. I'll play some of the schoolboys, because we do have a Reserve game on Wednesday that I need to think about. It should be a good game.

The Cumberland management team approached me to see if we could set up a game, because they have entered the Counties competition, and they want to do as well as they can. They're in a group with East Riding and Liverpool, and they need to get the boys some decent match practice. I'm only too happy to help in this kind of situation.

As I say, any help that I can give to them in their inter-Counties campaign, then I am only too happy to assist."