Lucas Leiva made his return to action on Friday afternoon when he helped Liverpool U21s to a 1-0 win against Middlesbrough at the Kirkby Academy.

It was the midfielder's first minutes since sustaining a thigh injury against Manchester City on August 26 and his return was a successful one as he lasted for 61 minutes and looked comfortable out on the field.

Lucas saw plenty of the ball, kept his passing neat and concise along the deck and the Brazilian clearly relished launching into challenges against the opposition before being replaced by Craig Roddan just after the hour mark.

Meanwhile the result means Rodolfo Borrell's side remain the only unbeaten team in the country at U21 level and secure qualification to the Barclays U21 Premier League elite group stage with their seventh win in 10 domestic matches.

But Cameron Park gave the Reds an early scare on Friday when he stormed into the Liverpool penalty area to side-foot over Peter Gulacsi's crossbar after minutes of play.

Liverpool began to settle and turn the screw on home soil and it was Adam Morgan who posed the biggest threat throughout the first half and indeed much of the second.

On 13 minutes he narrowly missed the best chance of the opening exchanges when Dani Pacheco slid a ball into his path but his chipped shot failed to clear 'Boro stopper Connor Ripley by the tightest of margins.

Pacheco slipped another pass into the striker's feet minutes later and the local lad sent an effort crashing towards goal via a deflection, prompting a superb acrobatic save from the 'keeper.

Morgan had several more chances to break the deadlock after the interval and Krisztian Adorjan was controversially denied a goal which was ruled to have been offside.

However, on 76 minutes, Morgan made no mistake when he controlled a through ball and rounded Ripley, leaving a defender floored in the penalty area, before tapping home the Reds' winner into an empty net.

Liverpool team: Gulacsi, Flanagan (McLaughlin), Robinson, Sama, Sokolik, Coady, Morgan, Lucas (Roddan), Pacheco, Adorjan, Pelosi (Teixeira). Unused subs: Ward, Ngoo.