BURNLEY Under 15s bid to make it into the last 16 of the Heinz Ketchup Trophy when they take on Lancashire rivals Blackpool in their fourth round clash at Belvedere FC on Saturday (10.30am).

The local youngsters have been having a superb season and they moved into the fourth round with a magnificent 5-0 win against Halton in their third round tie last month.

But they will have to be at their best if they went to make progress into the last 16 of the national schools knockout cup.

Blackpool cruised into the second round with an 8-0 win at Rochdale and they followed that with a narrow 1-0 second round replay win against Blackburn after the two teams were deadlocked in a goalless draw.

And they followed that by beating last season's runners-up Bishop Auckland 2-1 after extra time of their third round clash a fortnight ago.

Burnley maintained their fine form when they beat Blackburn 3-0 in their Lancashire Cup group match at Pleasington last week.

Burnley got off to a super start with Ashley Wheland firing them in front in the first minute and he went on to complete his hat trick with two second half strikes.

Pendle Under 15s and Hyndburn shared the points in a goalless draw when they met in the Lancashire Cup last week.

Blackburn Under 14s were not so fortunate and they crashed out of the North West Woodward Trophy after going down 4-0 to a strong Manchester side in their second round clash at Belle Vue. Rossendale Under 14s were knocked out 5-0 by Chester in the first round and they hope for better fortunes when they take on Salford in a challenge match at Fearns High School on Saturday (kick-off 10am).

Blackburn Under 13s five match unbeaten run came to an end when they went down 4-3 to Leeds in their challenge match in West Yorkshire. Matthew Needham, Kyle Moorcroft and Jonathan Pearce were the Blackburn scorers.

Blackburn Under 12s fared better beating Leeds' younger representative team 5-1 in West Yorkshire. Ashley Parillon led the way with four and Anthony Pilkington scored the other.

Meanwhile, at county level, Lancashire Under 16s lost their second Northern Counties group match when they went down 3-1 to Greater Manchester at Leyland.

Shaun Dootson (Bolton) shot Greater Manchester in front after 10 minutes and Ciaran Kilheeney (Stockport) added the second before the break.

Lancashire replied with a Ricky Mercer (Preston) goal 15 minutes into the second half but Greater Manchester clinched maximum points with a Nick Hunt (Wigan) goal 10 minutes from time.

Lancashire look for their first win in the Northern Counties competition when they take on Cheshire at Leyland on Monday, December 6 (kick-off 7pm).

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