AcademyLiverpool U18s beaten in friendly encounter at Southampton
Liverpool U18s were beaten 6-3 by Southampton in a friendly encounter away from home on Saturday afternoon.
Ranel Young struck twice for the young Reds and Kareem Ahmed was also on the scoresheet, but it was the hosts who prevailed at Staplewood Campus.
Reflecting on the contest, U18s manager Marc Bridge-Wilkinson told Liverpoolfc.com: “It’s a great game to have to play against a team from the southern division. Obviously they hosted us, which was really nice, it was a lovely complex and it was a nice place to go and play football.
“The game started really well. We went 2-0 up quite early but then we found it little bit difficult after that to get a foothold back in the game. Southampton were really quite strong and played well. But we stayed in the game, managed to get back into it towards the end with a little bit of good play.
“In the end it was probably a fair result overall. There’s lots for us to work on still but there’s a few positives as always.”
On the decision to play a friendly ahead of next week’s season finale against Derby County, he added: “We had a free weekend and I had a look to see who else had a free weekend in the southern division and it happened to be them.
“To be able to play against an academy that’s a little bit further afield than what we’re used to, and a team we don’t always play, is brilliant. It’s always good to play against teams that are different, to see what they’re about and judge ourselves against teams from other parts of the country.”
Liverpool U18s return to competitive action on Saturday May 11 when they travel to face Derby in their final league match of the season, which supporters can watch live on LFCTV and LFCTV GO (12.30pm BST kick-off).
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