Aston Villa's young academy stars will enter the lion's den tonight when they take on Chelsea in the second leg semi-final of the FA Youth Cup knowing they are just 90 minutes from their first major domestic final.

Tony McAndrew's youngsters drew 1-1 with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago and know victory tonight in front of a bumper Villa Park home crowd will see them safely through to the final which is also played over two legs, home and away.

But although fans might forgive the youth team for focusing all their attention on the trophy in hand tonight, they will be impressed to discover the academy side is also currently well on track to win a potential double.

The youngsters currently top their youth league division and could end up with a brace of impressive trophies come the end of the season.

Coach McAndrew, who looks after the youngsters alongside Bryan Jones and legendary Villa midfielder Gordon Cowans, today praised his young side for the focus and committment ahead of tonight's 7pm kick-off in a match which will be the biggest of their young lives so far.

McAndrew, who played professionally for Middlesbrough and Chelsea, saw his young lions stay top of the FA Premier Academy League Group B with a 1-0 victory at Fulham at the weekend.

His side are now seven points clear of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur and third-placed Leicester City.

Scottish superstar Barry Bannan scored the winner against Fulham and the coach was delighted with the performance ahead of tonight's showdown.

He said: "That was an excellent performance. It was a long trip and we came up against a side that's trying to win their section, so it was tough.

"The start of the game was important and we started very well. They threw everything at us for the first 20 minutes, some of it fair, some of it not so fair.

"But what pleased me is that we coped with it and when the game settled down we played some great football.

"I think Fulham obviously thought we might have our minds on something else but our lads were absolutely superb. They were committed to the job in hand and were totally focused on that game."

McAndrew added: "We deservedly won the game and 1-0, I think, flattered Fulham a little bit. I don't actually remember them having a clear-cut chance.

"Our defending as a team and as individuals was absolutely first-class. That's from the front men right the way back.

"A lot of the media focus might have been on the FA Youth Cup run, but we concentrated last week on the Fulham game.

"It wasn't until we won that game that we started talking about the game now ahead of us.

"It's important that we focus on one thing at a time. We tell these kids that if you look too far ahead you can sometimes be caught short."

The academy youngsters who boast a number of rising stars including Nathan Delfouneso, who was recently given a first team squad number, have a major fan in Aston Villa first team boss Martin O'Neill who has joined the team on every step of their route to the semi-final.

O'Neill has already hinted that one or two of the youngsters could be heading towards his first team squad in the near future.

He said: "The idea of the academy is to try and produce players and the academy people will be the first to admit when a player arrives at the first team door then everyone is delighted and hoping he pushes on.

"Nathan is doing very well but so are some of the other younger lads. They are doing very, very well and I have been immensely impressed by them.

"I think it is great credit to the academy that it created players when Villa last won the FA Youth Cup in 2002 players like Steven Davis, Liam Ridgewell, Gary Cahill and Luke Moore who have done well on more than a few occasions and have gone on to have good careers with Villa and beyond.

"The academy should take great credit for these players coming through."

O'Neill added: "There are one or two players coming through the current academy squad. I don't want to put undue pressure on them but they are definitely capable of playing in our first team."

Admission to tonight's match, which kicks off at 7pm at Villa Park, is free and Villa supporters have been urged to turn out and get behind the club's future stars as they strive to win their first piece of silverware of the season so far.