ReactionBarry Lewtas on U21s' EFL Trophy win at Morecambe: 'The boys were brilliant'

Mateusz Musialowski opened the scoring for the young Reds, Calum Scanlon added a second and Bobby Clark grabbed a deserved strike as all three goals arrived in the opening half, while Brazilian stopper Marcelo Pitaluga also showed his qualities with several outstanding saves.

Since Liverpool entered the competition back in 2019, there have been many hard-luck stories along the way – but the main positives have been the likes of Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak all gaining valuable experience playing against senior opposition.

This 3-0 win represents the U21s' first victory in the EFL Trophy and was a great way to start Group A, which also includes away trips to Blackpool and Barrow.

Read on as U21s head coach Lewtas reflects on a great night for the Academy…

On a superb win…

I've done a lot of these games now and I wouldn't say in the past I've made excuses but I've had to come back with reasons how we have been affected in certain parts of the game and been dominated in certain parts of the game. But I thought the boys were brilliant. It's nice to win, get the clean sheet and I thought the way we kind of acquitted ourselves was first-class, to be fair.

On how proud he was of his young players and the display of 16-year-old Carter Pinnington at centre-back…

The wind was swirling and I thought Carter was unbelievably assured. He will learn a lot from that experience. We had some really good performances out there with everyone all making contributions for the team. The midfield – Tom Hill, Macca [James McConnell] and Bobby – was a real strong core for our team. When we needed to play, we played. We were clever in the way we got behind them and defensively they put a right shift in for us. The midfield was a real strong point.

On Liverpool's first win in the EFL Trophy…

We were playing against a good team with a real identity. We knew what we were coming into and it's something different for the lads, playing at a stadium, a different environment. It's not the Academy but when you weigh all that up, this was a really good performance. We scored three really good goals. We tried to get our full-backs wide and tried to get down the sides, and fair play to the lads. Robbo [Jonathan Robinson] did work with the lads last Thursday on some of the crossing and the areas where we thought we could hurt them, so that was pleasing to see it come off.

On a busy schedule of games coming up for his team…

We've got Wolves at home on Sunday next, so we'll see who we have got, what players we have and take it from there. We just take every game as it comes and then we've got Monaco at home next Wednesday night in the Premier League International Cup. So there's lots of game time coming up for these boys.