13th Apr – Liverpool 0 – 1 Manchester United (Premier Reserve League North) – Reds reserve striker Lauri Dalla Valle started the match but couldn’t prevent Liverpool falling to their second defeat in a row. It was a crucial loss against title rivals Manchester United too and leaves the Reds with it all to do going into their last four games of the season. United had the best of the early exchanges but Dalla Valle was the first Liverpool player to have an early sight of goal. The young Finnish striker made space for himself in the penalty area but missed the target from six yards out, an embarassing miss which was luckily chalked off by the fact the ball had already gone out of play when the cross came in. Chances for Damien Plessis outside the box, and freekicks from Gerardo Bruna and Franciso Duran were all Liverpool could muster in a first half that saw the Reds reduced to popping long balls to Dalla Valle. It was United who got the deciding goal before half-time when Gabriel Obertan outmuscled Plessis and unleashed a right foot piledriver into the top corner. Liverpool would need to improve in the second half if they were to get anything out of the match and Dalla Valle was subbed after the interval for winger Alex Kacaniklic to change the direction of the match. Mendy also came on for Duran, and the changes seemed to work as chances came for Damien Plessis and Alex Cooper to equalise. A goal never came though and the match finished 1-0. The result means that Liverpool are now nine points behind United in the chase for the Reserve League title, although they do have two games in hand over their Manchester rivals. Reserve coach John McMahon after the match felt that Liverpool were the better side:
“The performance was good overall and especially in the second half I thought we controlled the game for large parts. It was a little hard to take to come away from this game with nothing as I felt we were the better side. Give credit to Obertan for the goal. It was some strike and a player of that quality can do that. That makes the difference in a game like this. We asked the lads to up the tempo in the second half and told them not to be frightened of United. They were hanging on at the end which was a good sign. From the line-up that we started the season with we have lost six or seven players, some have gone on loan and some were unavailable to us for this game but credit to the young lads who have come in. They are working hard.”
