Manchester United U18s returned to action this Saturday as they hosted Liverpool U18s at Carrington.
For this occasion, the manager fielded this XI: Harrison (GK), Kingdon, Jackson, Nolan, Williams, Fitzgerald, Berry, Scanlon, Lacey, Musa, Norkett.
Subs: Mantato, Wooster, Baumann, Munro & Ibragimov.
This XI was quite young even for this level after a few regulars played last night in the victory against West Ham U21s. Some of the lads were called up from the U16 and U15 age groups.
The game started vividly as Liverpool were on the ball and had a brilliant chance to score in the first minute, but Harrison was ready and in position. It was quite interesting to see what Shea Lacey would do in this side against an opponent like Liverpool.
Well, I received the answer to that pretty quickly, as Lacey played a brilliant ball down the left hand side for Musa, but the keeper managed to get there before the United youngster. It did not take long for United to make their chances count, as at first it was Williams whose shot found the keeper but then Scanlon was in the right position to fire it home. Musa and Nolan were also involved in the set-up and the scene for Williams was brilliant, but the rebound itself did the work.
James Scanlon scores on the rebound after Ethan Williams' shot comes off the post! 1-0 United pic.twitter.com/AtLUxAvrzV
— utdreport Academy (@utdreportAcad) January 21, 2023
While it seemed that United were entering into management moment, Liverpool clearly had other ideas. It was Ahmed who got easily into the box and manage to escape the coverage of our defence, however, a not so necessary interference from Williams was enough for the referee to point to the penalty spot. Miles made no mistake from the spot.
The first half was bound to be quite vivid as action was running down in both ends and keepers were being ready whenever called up in action. What is interesting to see is that Erik’s style of play has impacted our academy quite a lot as you could see from Vitek last night and Harrison today that their passing game has gotten so much better. It was Harrison who made a fantastic save from Kone-Doherty, everything seemed to be pointing into a Liverpool lead at that point.
Later on it was Lacey again who found Musa through a brilliant pass, but Musa did not quite found the right moment to finish it. So far it was not just meant to be for Norkett who wanted to get United ahead at the end of the first half, but it was a bit wide.
The second half had another story waiting for us. Liverpool’s Scanlon was not holding well the pressure from Lacey throughout the game. This would a result in a double booking in the end. In the free kick given from the first booking, Musa and Jackson did not make much of the respective chances. On the second booking, which meant that Liverpool would be down to 10 men, it was obvious that the goal would come soon or later for Manchester United.
After a few tries and weirdly taken shots, Norkett finally managed to make his chances count.
Manni Norkett restores the lead for United! 2-1 pic.twitter.com/ZelRTAxm3D
— utdreport Academy (@utdreportAcad) January 21, 2023
Musa was on the serve again as he played a brilliant ball for Manni who did not miss this time. United needed to kill this game and learn from first team mistakes and so they did. It was Adam Berry whose cross found Jacey Fitzgerald who stroke it well with his right and it ended up being an excellent finish.
WHAT A GOAL!
Jayce Fitzgerald 🚀 pic.twitter.com/GVKN4opKqy
— utdreport Academy (@utdreportAcad) January 21, 2023
Liverpool were not giving up on this just yet and they scored 60 seconds before the full time whistle through Young. Afterwards it was a nervy 1 minute play, but the youngsters did well to protect the lead and get the three points. It’s always lovely to defeat Liverpool in every level, isn’t it?
