'The lads have been brilliant - hopefully that will continue'
A willingness to work hard every day in training, listen to advice and put it into practice on the field has underpinned Liverpool U18s' encouraging season so far, according to manager Marc Bridge-Wilkinson.
The young Reds sit second in the U18 Premier League North table and face Stoke City away from home this afternoon - a game you can watch live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO from 1.55pm GMT.
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Last weekend, an experimental U18s side had a break from their league programme and recorded a 5-3 win over Bolton Wanderers in a friendly at the Academy.
U16 players Pharell Williams and Iwan Roberts joined Oakley Cannonier and Layton Stewart, who netted twice, on the scoresheet.
Ahead of their trip to Stoke, we caught up with Bridge-Wilkinson to discuss the progress of his young players this term, captain Jarell Quansah signing his first professional deal, and more...
On an encouraging display in Saturday's friendly with Bolton…
It was a really good day. It gave us an opportunity to see some of the younger U16 players play at this level. These lads have been training with us for probably a month so it was great to give them some minutes. It was great to see Pharell and Iwan score. It was nice to see the two centre-forwards arriving in the area at the right time and they got their goals.
On the return to action of midfielder Melkamu Frauendorf and centre-back Lee Jonas after injury…
It was really important that Mel got 65 to 70 minutes in his tank. He looked good. He was quick, he was sharp as he ever was. It was also great to see Lee back with us. It was brilliant to see him get 45 minutes and hopefully he will get more and more minutes for us now.
On the previous league game when the Reds were unfortunate to lose 4-2 away to Manchester City as the home side scored two late goals…
We played quite well. I wouldn't say we were the best team and I wouldn't say they were either. We both had moments and when we got it back to 2-2 we were on top at that point. We were then unfortunate when Terence Miles, our centre-half, got an injury and he was off the pitch when they made it 3-2. It's difficult to take sometimes but that's football.
On today's visit to Stoke…
We are looking forward to it. It's been a long time in coming because it was called off earlier in the year due to the weather, so we are looking forward to it. We played Stoke City at the start of the season and they made it hard for us, to be fair, and the 5-0 scoreline probably didn't reflect the game itself. We did create chances, we did have moments, but they did try to make it really tough so we are expecting the same again from them.
LFCTV GO: U18s put five past Stoke City
On Dominic Corness scoring two goals direct from corners in that previous clash with Stoke…
We've been telling Dom this week to practise them again to see if he can score! It's unheard of really and it doesn't happen very often and we all enjoyed it. This is going to be a tough game, though, so we've all got to be at our best.
On seeing some encouraging signs from his team so far in 2020-21…
The lads have been brilliant. There's no concerns in terms of their application, attitude, the character they show week in, week out in training as well as the games. They have been fantastic so it has been really good so far and hopefully that will continue.
On Quansah signing his first professional contract and captaining the U18s this season…
It was a great moment for him and his family as well. Jarell has been at the Academy for a very long time now and we have plenty of boys who have been here since they were five or six! It's really nice to seem them come through all the way from pre-Academy to being professional footballers at Liverpool. Jarell is a really good character. He's lively within the group, he leads and the example he sets on and off the pitch is very good, so he leads by the example that he sets. He's becoming more vocal, which is something in the position he's playing in he needs to be. Part of him wearing the captain's armband is I am expecting him to try to talk more on and off the pitch. Jarell is a great character. His family are really grounded and we are really pleased to see the progression that he is making.