For those hardy Liverpool supporters who turned up at the club’s Kirkby Academy complex yesterday morning for the Under 18 match against Crewe Alexandra, there was more than a touch of deja vu in the air as an early lead suddenly became a 1-2 deficit.
After a lively start with both teams lining up with one man up top with their number 10s playing in the European style ‘number ten’ position, Liverpool took the lead on 36 minutes through skipper Conor Coady.
Coady himself was the architect of the goal with a Gerrard-esque forward surge in which he played a firm ball into Hungarian Krisztian (Kris) Adorjan around the edge of the penalty area. Kris took a touch before expertly returning the ball into the path of Coady who had continued his run to finish tidily in the bottom corner.
Before this, most of the chances had been at the Crewe end with Michael Ngoo having a couple of shots blocked, another effort deflected wide and a smart chance from a driven cross by Toni Silva which seemed to catch him a little by surprise.
Michale Ngoo, who the Reds managed to lure from the clutches of Manchester United, was causing Crewe problems throughout with his intelligent running and his running and dribbling skills which are not usually associated with a player of his considerable stature. Adorjan had also worked himself an opening after 8 minutes with some some good footwork, but his shot was pulled well wide.
After last week’s defeat to a late Stoke penalty Liverpool , were obviously eager to get back to winning ways but although most of the play in the first half was in the direction of the Crewe keeper, the visitors occasionally mounted threats on the home goal with their own attractive passing style of play.
In fact after only 9 minutes a cross from the left wing was intercepted at the far post by Brad Smith, but the ball was not cleared and after popping around the six-yard area untidily the move ended with a looping header from Clayton dropping onto the face of the Liverpool crossbar.
Shortly before Liverpool took the lead Crewe were gifted a chance when a breakdown in communications between Stephen Sama and goalkeeper Jamie Stephens resulted Stephens having to lay both hands on a firm backpass. The resulting free-kick was smashed just wide, and soon afterwards Cooke fired just past the Liverpool post, before the half finished with another very presentable chance for Crewe with Antoni Sarcevic hitting a rising half-volley just over.
Half Time: Liverpool (Coady) 1 Crewe 0
The second half began in similar style with a couple of half chances for the Liverpool. Ngoo worked a good opening for himself but shot straight at the keeper and Kris Adorjan choosing to ignore Ngoo and Sterling to shoot over the bar from the edge of the box.
In the interim Crewe had signalled that they were still in this game with two raids down Liverpool’s right flank, which came to nothing.
As the game reached the three quarter mark the game was turned completely on its head with two Crewe goals in the blink of an eye. First poor marking allowed centre forward Harry Clayton to half volley home from 12 yard and before Liverpool had worked out what had hit them, Clayton hit a cracking volley into the top corner despite the best efforts of Stephens whose left hand could not prevent it finding the target.
Although Liverpool had generally been on top, Crewe had served sufficient warnings that they could not be begrudged their lead. Liverpool, as expected hit back. A long cross was flicked on by Michael Ngoo for Silva to volley from close range forcing a good save, although the linesman’s flag was raised.
After 75 minutes Liverpool drew themselves level and once again Ngoo in the right place to flick the ball past the keeper, the ball rolling gently into the Crewe net.
Once again, though, the visitors rallied and two great shots flashed just wide of the home goal, the second of which being a fantastic 20 yard volley from the very young-looking Caspar Hughes which missed the angle by a foot or so with the Liverpool keeper well beaten.
As the game entered its last ten minutes the ever dangerous Michael Ngoo drifted past a couple of Crewe defenders and his shot from an angle almost forced its way through the keeper but the ball crossed the goal-line just the wrong side of the post.
From the ensuing corner Liverpool once again took the lead as centre-back Matty Regan capping a good display by forcing the ball into the net from the middle of the six-yard box.
As the game drew towards its conclusion another corner was headed clear only for Coady to hit a ferocious volley narrowly wide from a full 25 yards.
Raheem Sterling who had had a quieter game today, was replaced the towering Henoc Mukendi in the later stages and it was the substitute who created the fourth goal for the home side in the final minute. Mukendi cleverly turned near the left corner flag before pulling back a low cross into the path of man-of-the-match Michael Ngoo to fire low into the far corner to clinch proceedings.
So Liverpool returned to winning ways with good performances all around the pitch. After the previous bad-tempered home game against Derby credit must go to Crewe for their part in a good flowing match with very few fouls and no yellow cards.
Final Score : Liverpool 4 (Coady, Ngoo (2), Regan) – Crewe 2
Liverpool Team : Jamie Stephens; Matthew McGiveron (sub Patrik Poor 86 mins), Stephen Sama, Matthew Regan, Brad Smith; Raheem Sterling (sub Henoc Mukendi ,80mins), Conor Coady (c), Craig Roddan, Toni Silva; Krisztian Ajordan; Michael Ngoo.
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