AcademyYouth League preview: 'Kelleher can inspire our young players'

The Academy graduate made several important stops during Sunday's Carabao Cup final at Wembley and then scored the decisive penalty in the shootout against Chelsea.

Kelleher's performance made it a very proud day for Academy manager Alex Inglethorpe, goalkeeping coaches Mark Morris, Neil Edwards and the staff.

"It was a brilliant moment for Caoimhin on Sunday and everyone is delighted for him,” Bridge-Wilkinson told Liverpoolfc.com. "To be part of this football club in this time period, with the success of the first team, is special.

"To see the first team again win another trophy can only inspire us as an Academy and it's definitely something we look up to.

"To see one of our boys play such an integral part at Wembley was really nice, and it's great for all of the goalkeeping staff who have all been a part of this journey Caoimhin is on."

The young Reds have home advantage as they host Genk in the last 16 of the Youth League, with kick-off at the Academy set for 2pm GMT.

Read Bridge-Wilkinson's match preview below...

On last Saturday's 3-1 win over Everton, with Harvey Blair netting twice…

It was a good win. It was great to see Harvey getting two goals but we know there's still much more to come from him. We still want the boys to try to reach their full potential. I was really pleased for Harvey, it was nice, but we know he's got more to come. Overall, it was a decent performance in the first half and it's one we can look back on from the second half and say we could have done more. We could have scored more goals but it wasn't to be and we take what we got.

On Bobby Clark sealing an impressive display with a goal…

Bobby was good. He was lively, the first half probably more so than the second, but it was a good performance from him. Again, he showed people the potential he has got and rounded it off with a goal.

On the test posed by Genk…

It's going to be a tough game. They are a good side and they had an excellent win over Chelsea in their previous outing in the competition. We've had a long wait since we qualified for the last 16 and we are looking forward to it.

On whether he feels playing at the Academy could give his side an advantage…

I think so. If you look at this season's games in the UEFA Youth League the home teams have generally found things a little bit easier. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy for us because Genk are a really good side, but it means this gives us an opportunity to play in a setting that we are used to.

On whether his players can learn lessons from the recent heartache they suffered against Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup…

Yes, there has to be. We as developers, as coaches of younger players, our job is to give them a multitude of different experiences so that hopefully when they do get thrown into a first-team environment or whatever gets thrown at them, it's hopefully not the first time they will face it. The Chelsea game turned out and panned out not to be the way that we wanted it to and it was so disappointing and such a tough evening to be a part of, but it has given us a great opportunity to teach these boys that side of football. Fingers crossed, we can use that experience, albeit a bad one, and we can turn it into a positive so that this doesn't happen again.

On what he wants from his players on Wednesday…

Just to treat it like any other game. Go out there, be positive in the way that we play the game. Be energetic, be bright, enjoy it and ultimately try to leave a mark on the game in a positive way. Can you find your way of putting your stamp on the game? Whether it's forwards getting chances and taking them, or defenders doing their job defending, midfielders linking and creating, 'keepers making saves, keep doing what you are going to do. Whatever it is we need to do, let's do it in a positive way, be really efficient in the way that we do it and let's try to win this game.