Manchester United will face Bury in the FA Youth Cup tonight at Old Trafford.

Several schoolboys are expected to realise a personal ambition by turning out at the Theatre of Dreams, which is in contrast to last year, when Paul McGuinness was able to call upon James Wilson, Andreas Pereira and Saidy Janko in the competition - even though they were part of the Under-21 squad.

"We've got younger players coming up and it's only going to improve them," explained the coach to ManUtd.com. "We played three or four schoolboys at Liverpool early in the season and it was a shock to the system because they weren't quite ready for it.

"Now they've had a few games, they are more experienced and we hoped it would be a different story in the home match with Liverpool [a 0-0 draw at Altrincham's J. Davidson Stadium]. Certainly, they've improved a lot and I think this team will continue to improve.

"A number of them are ready to make quite a bit of a breakthrough and it would definitely help to have a little run in the FA Youth Cup. Everyone's confidence goes up but the problem then is we have more games and we haven't got a lot of players to share around.

"We only have just enough players at the moment but that will be another challenge and we'll have to get through it. It's a challenge but I think everybody is in it together and they're ready, with a number of them set to make the next step."