Premier U-21 League 2014-15
             White Hart Lane, Tottenham
             Friday 17th April 2015, 7pm

               SPURS     v     LIVERPOOL
           (White/Blue)        (All Red)
              4-2-3-1           4-2-3-1

                1(0)              3(2)

             Luke McGee  1 Lawrence Vigouroux
     Kyle Walker-Peters  2 Corey Whelan
         Connor Ogilvie  3 Sam Hart
       Etienne Capoue(C) 4 Conor Randall(C)
      Christian Maghoma  5 Dan Cleary
 Cameron Carter-Vickers  6 Alex O'Hanlan
         Kenneth McEvoy  7 Sergi Canos
            Harry Winks  8 Dan Trickett-Smith
        Shayon Harrison  9 Samid Yesil
          Joshua Onomah 10 Ryan Kent
         William Miller 11 Harry Wilson

          Filip Lesniak 12 Tom Brewitt
              (4)71Mins
         Jonathan Miles 13 Andy Firth
              Luke Amos 14 Ovie Ejaria
                           (7)86Mins
      Daniel Akindayini 15 Madger Gomes
              (9)56Mins    (9)66Mins
         Ismail Azzaoui 16 Marc Pelosi
              (8)56Mins    (8)61Mins

Scorers:-
         Miller 77         Kent 4
                           Yesil 27, 48

Booked:-
                           Cleary 45(Foul)

Coach:-
         U. Ehiogu         M. Beale

Referee:– C. Hatzidakis
Assistants:– M. Greenwood & A. Blake
Fourth Official:– S. Williams

It was a chilly evening for this game at White Hart Lane. A win for Spurs would have moved them from sixth place to a possible second depending on the result of Norwich City. Second placed Liverpool needed the win to close the gap on Manchester United at the top.

Spurs lined up with McGee behind Maghoma and Carter-Vickers at the back with Walker-Peters at right back and Ogilvie on the left. Capoue, making a rare appearance, joined Winks as defensive midfield in front of the back four. Onomah played behind Harrison up front with McEvoy on his right and Miller on his left. Former young Spur Vigouroux was in goal for the visitors.

Spurs defended the Park Lane End in the first half and took a little while to settle with McGee not kicking well. A poor clearance by the keeper lead to the first goal when Liverpool put the ball back in to the area where Kent drilled home.

McGee saved at his near post from Yesil when Wilson got down the left and crossed. From the resultant corner McEvoy was released down the right and rode two tackles before getting into the area where Vigouroux saved at his feet before McEvoy put the loose ball over the bar. Miller cut in from the left but his effort was blocked with Capoue firing the rebound over the bar.

With Spurs pushing forward looking for an equaliser and having most of the possession, Liverpool broke away through Kent who played in Yesil, who was in the area to score with his second attempt at the far post. McEvoy got down the right again and floated over an inviting ball for Harrison to attack but Vigouroux got there just ahead of him.

Canos got down the right, crossing for Kent at the far post to lift over. In the last minute of the half, following a Liverpool corner, Winks got past Trickett-Smith but was fouled by Cleary to prevent him getting clear through. That earned the Liverpool defender the only yellow card of the game.

There were no changes for the start of the second half which saw Spurs get down the right through McEvoy from the kick-off. Spurs fell further behind when Canos got round the back and crossed for Yesil to claim his second goal of the night.

Spurs kept pushing for a goal and Capoue played in Onomah for an effort that flew over the bar. Winks won a corner from his free kick which just cleared the far top corner. Spurs made a double change with Akindayini replacing Harrison up front and Azzaoui replaced Winks going to the left side. Miller moved to the middle and Onomah dropped into a more defensive position. Onomah was still able to get forward and fire over.

Akindayini flicked on the ball on the left to allow Azzaoui to get into the area only to fire into the side netting. Liverpool made a couple of changes before Maghoma saw his header saved from Azzaoui's corner. Spurs made their last change with Lesniak coming on for Capoue as they continued to press forcing Liverpool to concede free kicks.

Onomah sent Walker-Peters down the right and his cross was headed inside the near post by Miller who was unchallenged in the middle. Canos broke out and played in Kent who drew a save from McGee. With time running out another break by Liverpool saw Wilson get down the right before cutting in to let fire with Carter-Vickers making the block for a corner. Liverpool held out for the three minutes of added time to claim the points.

It was a tight game of few chances for either side. It was not a fluid performance from Spurs but they had most of the possession only to be picked off by Liverpool. The visitors defended well not allowing Spurs to have many attempts on goal looking fairly comfortable becoming more open when two up but a little nervous when Spurs pulled a goal back.

Liverpool move to a point behind Manchester United with the win, ahead of Norwich on goal difference who also won this evening, while Spurs drop a place due to the goals conceded. Spurs' next game is against Sunderland at Stevenage on Monday 27th April where they will hope to end the run of five games without a win when they were in second place.

Ray

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