Make ours a treble!

Paul McGuinness’s 18-man squad kicked off their campaign with a 4-0 win over County Tyrone.

Nine of last year’s victorious squad - Johnstone, Giverin, Thorpe, McGinty, Cole, Cofie, Will Keane, Hussain, Michael Keane - are aiming to complete a hat-trick of Milk Cup victories for the club, while Paul Pogba, Alberto Massacci and Michele Fornasier will be looking to make up for missing last year’s tournament due to wrangles with their former clubs over the transfer of registrations.

The rest of the group is made up of six of the seven new first-year scholars, with keeper Liam Jacob the odd one out – understandable given the presence of fellow custodians Johnstone and Joe Coll in the 18.

Jacob is likely to get the chance to feature for the reserves while his peers are at the tournament, as Ben Amos will still be away with the first-team in North America and Conor Devlin looks set to also be at the Milk Cup with the Northern Ireland U20 side.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the squad is a name that’s not in it, that of midfielder Ravel Morrison. The 17 year-old was part of the squad last time around and is still eligible to play this year, but his absence – combined with his presence in the second string starting line-up for the recent victory over Curzon Ashton – suggests that the young Mancunian will instead be playing a big part in the reserves’ pre-season preparations.

Team manager, Paul McGuinness, is happy with the team’s preparations for the week.

“This is now our third week back training. We have two mini tournaments back home on our training ground with local clubs, 20 minute each way games and and this is the next step in the build up.

“Now you have the fans here and the competition and the lads are raring to go.

“We have more than half the squad that have been here before which is good because they have an idea of what’s coming.

“It’s a great experience for all of them. For some it’s the first time as a Manchester United player, a full time player and they start to see the crowds and people wanting autographs and it’s all part of being a player.

“And of course there’s the big crowds supporting every game.”

The Reds are aiming to make history by winning the Premier section for a third year in a row and a fifth time overall.

“These boys have 1993 birthdays and I have been bringing teams here since 1993 and it was a long time before we got a win [2003]. We got to finals and sem-finals.

“It’s a tough tournament to win so to win it twice is great but to win it three times would be fantastic.”

However McGuinness is taking nothing for granted as the tournament often throws up dark horses.

“It’s youth football, you can get surprises they’re not so professional yet that they know how to kill a game off.

“You can get a young team in Ireland with two or three really good players who can do very well or from another country that’s got a good youth programme and have never been here before.

“The fans know that there are well established clubs and they are also seeing teams from Mexico or Brazil.”

The United boss praised the Milk Cup committee for their continous efforts to improve the standard of the tournament.

“Certainly they have been trying to improve it all the time. At Manchester United it’s part of the fabric of what we do and Alex Ferguson wants us to come here because of the great support we get from Northern Ireland.

“United supporters come over every week to Old Trafford so to have a team to come here is great and of course they love the idea of home grown players.

“It’s a reward to the fans really that we keep coming.