THEY will be the fiercest of rivals when their teams meet at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday but Sam Allardyce and Peter Reid have been the best of friends since coming through the Burnden youth ranks together.

And what a wealth of young talent Wanderers had in those days!

Big Sam and Reidy were just two of seven members of that season's youth team who made it into the professional ranks along with Barry Siddall, Neil Whatmore, Steve Taylor, Brian Smith and Peter Olinyk.

Unfortunately not good enough on that particular Ferbruary day, 30 years ago, when Wanderers were denied a place in the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup by an Arsenal side that included a certain Liam Brady - one of six members of the London side with international experience.

While the seniors were winning a Third Division game at Wrexham 2-1, a Burnden Park crowd of crowd of 6,230 saw the kids concede their first goal of the competition - winger Brian Hornsby putting the Gunners into the semis.

Young Allardyce, a towering centre half even in those days, had captained the side to successive victories - 6-0 at Barrow, 6-0 at home to Halifax and 1-0 at home to Leeds.

On the day, he caught the eye along with tough-tackling full-back Alan Parkinson and industrious midfielder ... Peter Olinyk. The young Reid could only manage a place on the bench.