Under-18 coach David Lowe believes Manchester City are arguably the country's best youth team at the moment - and sees Saturday's clash as a chance for Derby to "show everyone" what they can do.

City host the Rams in the FA Premier Academy League on the back of going down 2-1 at home to Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup.

Lowe was at the City of Manchester Stadium to see the semi-final first-leg encounter and knows Derby will be in for a tough test.

But it is a game he is relishing.

"It will be a tough game but it will also be good for the coaches and, more importantly, the players to test themselves against them," Lowe told www.dcfc.co.uk.

"Manchester City are the benchmark at the moment with the position in their group, the results they have had, and the players they have been getting through to the first-team.

"They are what everyone is trying to achieve and it will be interesting to see how our boys cope with them."

Derby will travel to Manchester for the first of their final five games of the season, all of which are inter-group encounters after the completion of games against their Group D opponents.

Blackburn Rovers, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Bolton Wanderers and Crewe Alexandra also provide the opposition before the end of 2008/09.

City are well ahead at the top of their section but with points still counting towards each team's tally there's still everything to play for.

"Obviously not many people in the country think we will go and beat Manchester City on Saturday," said Lowe.

"But hopefully the boys in our dressing room will feel that we can go there and beat them.

"If we apply ourselves correctly it is a great opportunity for us to show everyone what we can do.

"We went to Manchester United earlier in the season and drew 2-2 so hopefully we can go there and get a similar result, if not better."

Lowe will assess the fitness of his squad at the end of the week with some of his players hit by "a few knocks and strains".

Derby take on Manchester City on the back of a 4-2 defeat at home to local rivals Nottingham Forest last weekend.

Aaron Dillon had opened the scoring on ten minutes but the visitors' Tim Hopkinson levelled it on 25 and put Forest in front three minutes after the break.

Arnaud Mendy put Derby back in it with 20 to go only for Hopkinson to take his tally to four with two late goals.

Lowe added: "We had a lot of the play in comparison to Forest - they had one shot in the first half and scored from it, and we didn't take advantage of numerous chances, which was disappointing.

"I know rsults over the last few weeks have been a bit disappointing but, overall, I don't think the lads could have done much more.

"Looking at the season as a whole I am really pleased with where they are at, particularly in comparison with where they finished last year."

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