Liverpool U18s have been challenged to keep up their exciting brand of football and hard work ethic as they head to Leicester City in the FA Youth Cup fifth round tonight.

Marc Bridge-Wilkinson's side have been in prolific form since continuing their progress in the tournament with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Manchester United in the last round.

The young Reds have bagged 10 goals in two league games against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United, taking their total in the U18 Premier League North to 65 in 21 matches.

Bridge-Wilkinson now wants to see his players carry that productivity into their Youth Cup tie against Leicester, with a home quarter-final versus West Ham United or Arsenal awaiting the victors.

Ahead of the 7pm BST kick-off at Leicester's training complex, we caught up with the U18s boss to preview the encounter…

On facing Leicester…

We are all looking forward to it. We've had a good week so far, so we are hoping the week can carry on as it is and we can put in a good performance. We played Leicester City in pre-season and because of the way the bubbles were working at that time due to COVID-19, they came with a bit of a mixed group, so we know they have got good players and it will be a tough game. Hopefully we can put in a good performance that will allow us to win the game.

On the hard work the players put in during the last round against United…

It was a wonderful performance but maybe a different type of performance as we weren't as good with the ball as we wanted to be. Anybody that watched the game will know that, but what we did do well was we never gave up. We continued to work hard for each other and we grounded out a result that in the end turned out well for us, so the boys deserve great credit.

On Mateusz Musialowski winning LFC's March Goal of the Month award for his sensational effort against Newcastle United…

Watch: March Goal of the Month top five

It's a nice little touch for him. It was a fantastic goal and it's something that we know and I'm sure you've all seen already that we know he's capable of doing this quite regularly. Matty has made those runs quite a few times but maybe hasn't had the end product at the right time. The goal against Newcastle was a wonderful goal and he is a player capable of scoring goals. I take a lot of pleasure from the ones when he is inside the box and he is arriving and scoring easier goals, because they are the ones that will make the goals, the numbers mount up for him, so it was a wonderful individual goal and we know he is more than capable of doing that again.

On the form of Max Woltman, who has netted four goals in his last two games, filling the void vacated by the injured Layton Stewart…

Max has been fantastic for us in recent weeks. He's taken on a role which is a little bit different from what he's used to, but he's allowed the rest of the team to play the type of game we are trying to play. Also, he has been in good goalscoring form and he's getting assists and goals, so we are really pleased with how he is doing.

On the eye-catching displays of James Balagizi after returning from injury…

Bala is an exciting player and that goes for a lot of boys in our group. Bala is a really strong boy and I think he can be really imposing and be really powerful when he's in the right frame of mind. He can be quite dynamic for us when he starts to carry the ball forwards. We know he's got a lot of potential. We've just got to help him unlock that potential and be more consistent in the way he uses it on the pitch.

Unfortunately, we've got a lot of boys who are injured and have missed out on big chunks of this season. We've got some really exciting players in this U18s group, whether that's Bala, Dominic Corness, Matty, Harvey Blair and Oakley Cannonier, Layton who is injured sadly, and Kaide Gordon who is cup-tied. You also think, Tom Hill hasn't played for us all season because of injury, so we've got players who are capable of getting people off their seats with individual moments but also collectively, they are capable of working hard for the team and producing exciting moments for us.