Support The Youth - Liverpool U18's 3 - 1 Leeds United U18's

Before yesterday, I'd been to Liverpool more times than I'd care to remember but I'd never visited Anfield. It had been on my list of grounds to do for a long time, so when the opportunity to support the U18's in the Youth Cup there, came along, it was a no brainier.

A chilly but sunny day in Liverpool made for a great day out but we were here for the football, so, we made our way to Anfield and parked in Stanley Park.

We were some of the first people there and were told by the stewards it was unreserved seating, so we picked out a nice little seat just behind the goal in the Kop, which is pretty unfamiliar territory for us Leeds Fans!!

It wasn't until just before kick off, when we heard the singing, that we realised, the Leeds fans had a little stand all of their own!! As You'll Never Walk Alone came over the tannoy, the travelling supporters were singing Marching On Together and were succeeding at drowning the home fans out.

The match kicked off and the Leeds fans were still singing at the top of their voices, chants of 'Your ground's too big for you' and 'You're supposed to be at home' were making the home fans laugh, but they had no comebacks, the Kop was very quiet indeed.

We controlled the first 20 minutes really, Corey Roper almost opened the scoring for us on the 18th minute but he failed to control the ball in the area.

22 minutes in and Lewis Walters looked disappointed to be replaced by Eoghan Stokes as he was attempting to play on after taking a knock a couple of minutes earlier, sadly, his night ended early but you have to admire his determination.

A minute later and Stokes put the ball in the back of the net but the referee spotted an infringement and the goal was not given.

At times the game was a tale of the two number 11's - Jordan Ibe for Liverpool and Chris Dawson for Leeds United. Dawson saw one of his shots go wide on the 25th minute but just four minutes later Ibe showed his blistering pace and made the score 1 - 0 to the home side.

Up until that point, we had somewhat been running the show but Liverpool looked deadly on the counter.

The goal looked to knock the stuffing out of the Leeds United youngsters, 39 minutes in, Ibe scored a brace after running nearly the full length of the pitch and finishing in style, 2 - 0.

Leeds were looking for a way back into the game in the second half and looked the more likely to score.

The travelling fans paid their respects to the 96 Liverpool supporters that went to Hillsborough and tragically never returned, 'stand up for the 96' and applause from both sets of fans echoed around the ground.

On the 61st minute Chris Dawson worked well to skip past the defenders in the area but his shot was well wide

Substitute Lewis Cook gave The Whites hope when he scored a great goal on the 71st minute bringing the deficit to one goal.

Ibe almost got his hat trick in the 74th minute but it was Jack Dunn who put the game out of Leeds United's reach in he dying minutes of the game.

I personally feel we were a lot better than the scoreline suggests. We have some very talented young players on our hands and they all worked very hard.

Liverpool also have a mass of talent in their squad, their counters were fantastic and their forwards never looked out of sorts.

I was impressed with pretty much everyone on the pitch and don't like singling players out but Smith Tiesse was marking fantastically in parts of the game. Alex Mowatt looks like exactly what you need in a captain and never stopped.
Goal scorer Lewis Cook looks very promising, his finish was calm and he took the goal well.
Chris Dawson looks deadly whenever he gets the ball, lots of pace and energy, unlucky not to score on quite a few occasions.

All in all, it was a great game, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Leeds supporters were fantastic they impressed and entertained a lot of the Liverpool fans in the Kop.

Well done boys!! Three words....Support The Youth.

MOT xx <3 xx