Rovers will get the opportunity to finish their Youth Cup adventure, after the FA revealed plans to conclude the 2019/20 competition.

Mike Sheron’s side thrashed Arsenal 4-1 in the quarter-finals in March to set up a last four tie with Manchester City, just days before the country went into lockdown.

The Academy season was then curtailed, but the Football Association, and the four remaining semi-finalists, have always maintained a desire to play the competition to a conclusion.

Rovers are bidding for a place in the final for the first time since 2012 and will face Manchester City in the last four on Friday, October 30 2020.

The game will be played at St George’s Park, with a  5pm kick-off, while the second semi-final will be between Chelsea and Manchester United at the same venue, but kick-off at 7.45pm.

Both semi-finals will be played behind closed doors but broadcast live on BT Sport.

The final will also be shown live, and also be played at St George’s Park, on Monday, November 2 (7.30pm).

The mainstay of Sheron’s side who reached the last four, albeit now first-year professionals, remain at the club and will be able to feature.

They include Luke Brennan who became the 13th Academy to be handed his senior debut by Tony Mowbray in the weekend defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Mowbray said: “Luke Brennan has trained with the first-team this year and has done exceptionally well, but he’s still only a young boy who’s still got a FA Youth Cup semi-final to play, but that’s where we were in terms of not having enough bodies available.”

It had been a fine run for Sheron’s side who had seen off Newport, Charlton, Preston and Arsenal, all at home.

Of the side which started the quarter-final win, only Flavien Enzo Boyomo and D’Margio Wright-Phillips, who was on loan from Manchester City, are no longer at the club.

The remaining members of Sheron’s squad have either signed professional deals and progressed into Billy Barr’s Under-23s set-up or continued their scholarships. Jordan Eastham, Dan Pike, Isaac Whitehall, Jalil Saadi, Jake Garrett, and Sam Burns, as well as Brennan, all agreed pro deals at the club as reward for their progress.

Of the desire to play out the competition, Rovers’ head of academy Stuart Jones said: “I think it’s really important. The boys have done really well and we see it as one of the top competitions and a lot of the conversations are that it’s looking positive.

“Hopefully we can go on and win it because that would be brilliant for us all.”