Under-18s set for season opener against Reading – watch live on SPURSPLAY

Our Under-18s will get the 2025/26 season underway on Saturday morning with a home game against Reading (11am UK) – and you can watch the match live on SPURSPLAY.

With a number of new first-year scholars in the fray and a pre-season of ups and downs behind them, the competitive action begins this weekend with a tough test against the Royals at Hotspur Way.

“Pre-season has been very good, the players have had lots of opportunities to try and develop and going into the season now, we hope to see that competitiveness on all fronts and we want to see the players improve as much as they can over the course of the year,” said Interim Under-18s Coach Joe Staunton after training on Friday.

“We always expect Reading to be a test. The game will bring its physical challenges, we expect it to be a difficult game but we want to try and dictate the ball and try to operate in a way where we can break them down and score goals.”

One player hoping to do that is striker Oliver Boast, who could make his competitive debut for the club on Saturday after transferring from Leeds United over the summer.

He played a cameo role in last weekend’s 3-1 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers – one of three behind-closed-doors practice matches the squad has participated in at Hotspur Way since the pre-season friendly in Cork last month. The others saw a 4-1 victory over Swindon Town and a 3-0 loss to Bromley.

“We’re trying to get the boys to become professional players,” said Joe. “They’re now in the building full-time, the first-years are obviously new to that but we want them to develop the appropriate habits both off the pitch as well as on the pitch to try and put themselves in a good position to go on and achieve their potential.”

All of our Under-18s’ home matches will be televised live on SPURSPLAY this term.

Find out more and subscribe now to ensure you can follow our youngsters’ season opener on Saturday morning.