RAHEEM Hanley is confident Blackburn Rovers’ starlets will be ready for the Turf Moor cauldron as they look to secure their place in the FA Youth Cup final.

The 18-year-old midfielder scored his first goal in four years in last week’s FA Youth Cup semi final first leg against bitter rivals Burnley to give Rovers a slender 1-0 lead.

Another bumper crowd is expected for tonight’s second leg at Turf, with more than 10,000 having watched the first, and Hanley believes their first leg experience can only help.

Hanley said: “It is different for all of us to be playing in front of all these people. We didn’t know what it was going to be like and when we heard the noise we knew it was going to be different.

“We couldn’t hear each other on the pitch and we had to start using sign language to communicate. We have witnessed the atmosphere now and we know what it is going to be like.

“We could not believe the noise. When we warmed up we saw a few people and thought it would be a decent crowd but we couldn’t believe it when we came out and saw everyone.

“There were that many people and it was very different to what we are used to, especially on a Saturday when there are 100 to 200 people.

“You can’t ignore the crowd because you are trying to tell your team mate something they can’t hear, which they would normally. You just have to focus on the game.”

Hanley gave Rovers the lead in the first half on Thursday with a glancing header from inside the area, as Rovers edged closer to reaching the FA Youth Cup final.

“It was a great time to score my first goal for four years,” he said. “I thought I would try and get in front of him and get my head on it. The lads give me banter every day about my heading ability so I enjoyed that one.

“It is always good to go into the second leg with the lead, especially as we are going to be playing the second leg away. Hopefully we can do better in the next leg because I don’t think we played as well as we can.

“We are not thinking about the final. We are thinking about the next game and getting through that and hopefully the final will be there. We are ready.”