Liverpool U18s 2-0 Stoke City U18s: Match Report & Marc Bridge-Wilkinson | OneFootball

Liverpool’s Under 18s rounded off a superb and busy week for the academy as Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s strong side overcame a resilient Stoke City outfit at the AXA.

The Reds had already been in action twice in a little over 24 hours earlier in the week with a resounding 4-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Youth League followed by a 0-0 draw against a senior Blackpool side at Bloomfield Road.

Able to call upon the likes of Carter Pinnington as well as Trey Nyoni and Rio Ngumoha following their involved in first-team training on Friday, this was a team packed full of quality.

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The class showed early on as Bridge-Wilkinson’s charges took control of proceedings early on with Nyoni, Ngumoha and Oli O’Connor all getting plenty of touches.

Despite the dominance chances were few and far between in the opening exchanges and it wasn’t until Ngumoha found Josh Sonni-Lambie in the area that the striker narrowly missed out on opening the scoring with an effort that struck the post.

The visitors posed somewhat of a threat on the counter and with set-pieces however it was more of the same as Kareem Ahmed, Lucas Pitt and Pinnington all attempted to break the deadlock in a first half that was more or less all Liverpool.

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Early on in the second half the pattern remained the same and this time the goal came when Ngumoha combined with Clae Ewing before the former crossed low towards Ahmed who got in front of the goalkeeper to steer home.

Having finally taken a deserved lead it was only errors at the back that gave Stoke a sniff, unable to capitalise on some lapse passing around the defence on two occasions.

Instead, another incisive Reds’ move with the tempo markedly up saw Joe Bradshaw provide Sonni-Lambie this time with the fleet-footed striker finding the back of the net.

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On another day it might’ve been more for The Reds, albeit Pinnington was called upon on two separate occasions to make big defensive interceptions to keep a clean sheet and Stoke captain Pijus Otegbayo was unfortunate not to score when his flicked near-post header came back off the inside off the post.

A much-needed three points for Liverpool moves the Under 18s up to 11th in the standings with seven points from nine matches.

Marc Bridge-Wilkinson

On the performance: “I thought we played quite well. Stoke were always lively and threatening. I thought we played some really good stuff, threatening around their box a lot. The only frustration maybe is that we only got two goals to show for it.”

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On half time: “The message was to keep doing what we were doing, move the ball quicker, all about getting that first goal. The boys stuck at it, held the ball for long periods, it was a good performance all around.”

On the involvement of Pinnington, Nyoni and Ngumoha: “First and foremost the most important thing is you’ve got three boys who want to play football. All at different stages of their journey, training in different groups but they all wanted to play and that tells you everything you need to know.”

On Ngumoha and his early development at LFC: “We have to remember he’s a young boy who has only just turned 16, moved clubs, missed a lot of football. We’ve got to give him time, I’m sure that in time to come we will see an even better version because he will get fitter, he will get stronger and he will grow, and his understanding of the team and the players around him will improve as well so it’s a really nice start for him.”