AcademyU18s match report: Liverpool score seven in win over Sunderland

An excellently taken finish from 20-plus yards from Trey Nyoni put the young Reds in front in the early stages at the Academy.

Kone-Doherty went on to find each bottom corner during a first half that the opponents had perhaps actually edged in Kirkby, and he wrapped up an impressive hat-trick six minutes after the interval.

Substitute Joe Bradshaw and Jayden Danns, twice, later added their names to the scoresheet to seal a ruthless result.

The U18 Premier League North game was not yet three minutes old when Liverpool took the lead with an outstanding strike.

A corner from the right flank was partly cleared to the edge of the Sunderland area, where Nyoni met the ball with a crisp half-volley that whistled inside the right post.

The visitors shrugged off the concession and applied concerted pressure in the aftermath, with Lucas Pitt needed to snuff out the danger when Trey Ogunsuyi pressed a slipping Nathan Morana and won the ball with the goal exposed.

A Reds breakaway opened up a chance for Kone-Doherty, who collected Nyoni’s pass into the left channel and stepped inside his marker before firing his shot too high.

Morana had to clutch in a firm strike by the influential Josh Robertson and Thomas Lavery later sent a promising chance wide having been found in space inside the Liverpool box.

But the hosts’ clinical ability in attack meant it was they who added to the scoresheet with 27 minutes on the clock.

Cody Pennington spread a pass out to the left flank that was an ideal invitation for Kone-Doherty and the winger moved in on the angle and threaded the ball low into the opposite corner.

Jaydon Jones hooked over the crossbar from Liam Hunt’s clip into the area as Sunderland continued to enjoy more of the run of the game leading up to the break.

But yet again, the Reds’ ruthlessness told. From another counter-attack, Kone-Doherty was able to carry the ball from his own half in a three-v-two, use his teammates as decoys and drag an effort into the net.

And Kone-Doherty completed his treble six minutes into the second half.

Liverpool turned over possession inside their own territory and Danns drilled a pass out wide for the No.11, who held up his man, cut infield and placed a low finish home.

Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s team could, and probably should, have had a penalty just before the hour mark, with Danns getting a touch to Pennington’s forward pass before being felled by the outrushing goalkeeper, but the referee waved play on.

Danns, Nyoni and Ben Trueman were denied at the last as the Reds pushed on for more goals, and Kone-Doherty saw a chance blocked from a near-identical situation to his third strike.

But their second-half ascendancy yielded three more goals in the closing stages, with Danns first teeing up Bradshaw inside the area to lift a finish over the ’keeper.

And Danns subsequently maintained his streak of scoring in every U18s match in 2023-24, winning the ball high up the pitch and swiping it into the net before nudging in his side’s seventh of the afternoon from Francis Gyimah’s deflected cross.

A minor blot of the day was the loss of a clean sheet two minutes into added time, with Robertson jinking into the area and smashing an effort past Morana.

TEAM

Liverpool U18s: Morana, Furnell-Gill, Kelly (Gyimah, 46), Lucky (Giblin, 76), Pitt, Trueman, Figueroa (Bradshaw, 46), Pennington, Danns, Nyoni (Lambie, 82), Kone-Doherty.

Unused sub: Misciur.

NEXT UP

In terms of competitive football, there is now a fortnight’s break for Liverpool U18s.

They return to action in the U18 Premier League Cup on October 21, hosting Fulham at the Kirkby Academy in an 11am BST kick-off.