Academy'We're looking forward to it' - Barry Lewtas previews a tough but exciting week for LFC U21s

First up for the young Reds is a trip to League Two side Harrogate Town tonight in their second group-stage fixture in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

That is followed by an away clash with Arsenal in Premier League 2 on Friday evening.

Lewtas' charges were in impressive form at the weekend as a Tyler Morton-inspired display saw them defeat Derby County 3-1.

The head coach is now hoping his young players can respond to the heavy loss at Crewe Alexandra in their Bristol Street Motors Trophy opener when they come up against Harrogate at the Exercise Stadium (kick-off 7.45pm BST).

Read on as Lewtas speaks to Liverpoolfc.com about a testing but beneficial week for his group…

On Saturday's impressive win over Derby at the Academy…

I think over the last few weeks our performance levels have been a little more consistent in all parts of our game. I thought our performance levels were really good.

On Morton rolling back the years on the main Academy show pitch…

It was nice because we had Tyler, Dominic Corness, James Norris, Tom Hill – they all went to school together. And Layton Stewart came down to watch us, which was great. It was kind of a lovely day of reminiscing and I think most importantly it was a really good performance from all of those boys. Tyler is a fantastic footballer, so to have him in and around the group was really good.

On Josh Davidson making a return from injury…

It was a real shame for Davo because he came back to pre-season in a good way and then picked up an injury. We are getting more players back now. There's more competition for places. The schedule of games we have, the more games we have then the more players we have available – [it] just allows us to swap players in and out and really attack games in the way we want to.

On Ranel Young playing as a No.9 so far this season after an injury-hit last campaign with the U18s…

I don't think No.9 is a new position for him as he had experience of that as a younger player. In terms of what he has offered us in the top line, he has given us some really nice moments with quality. He has run in behind and showed huge enthusiasm off the ball in terms of his energy and work-rate. He will want to weigh in for a few more goals because he is getting into good positions. But he is certainly working in the right direction at the moment. That is really pleasing for him because I think unfortunately for him his U18s year last term was really interrupted with injuries. The most important thing for us at the moment is really increasing the availability of Ranel and trying to keep him consistently playing the game.

On Trent Kone-Doherty's recent return from injury and netting from the bench at the weekend…

It will do his confidence the world of good, 100 per cent, and it was a nice goal. We are becoming more consistent now in all phases of our game and that was a good goal. It was great for Trent as he was able to play a lot of minutes in the UEFA Youth League against AC Milan and we are building him up game by game. It's really pleasing.

On a big week ahead for his team playing on Tuesday and Friday night…

It will be. It's not just the amount of games that we play but it's the quality of the opposition we are up against as well. Derby is always a tough game, Harrogate Town we know will be and we know what Arsenal are all about. This is all on the back of AC Milan. So, our games programme is there to stretch the boys – both in terms of content and the quality of the teams we play against and also the volume of games we play as well because that's the next level. There's no complaints from us but it shouldn't be a time to be moaning about these games as we are looking forward to them [with] the quality of opposition we will be playing and the challenges that are going to come our way.

On wanting a response against Harrogate after a tough night at Crewe…

Definitely. Listen, we came up against a Crewe team who have really picked up since they beat us, so I have to respect the opposition and they were good on the night. But we know there's parts of our game we didn't do ourselves justice in, which was disappointing. That's not taking anything away from Crewe as we know how difficult these games are against senior opposition, but we certainly feel we are in a better place now than we were that night. Relationships are becoming a lot stronger in the group in terms of how we are playing. We know to do well in these games that all parts of our game have got to be where they need to be if we are to have any chance. We know how good we've got to be on the night and we will do our best to be.

• Watch the U21s v Arsenal live on LFCTV GO on Friday night