Liverpool maintained their impressive early-season form in U18 Premier League North with a comfortable 4-1 away win at Middlesbrough this afternoon.
The win cemented their second-placed standing in the table, just one game short of the halfway point in the season, with league-leaders Manchester United narrowly beating third-placed Wolves 0-1 around the same time.
Liverpool remain three points behind Manchester United in the table, with the Old Trafford side having a game in hand as well, while Man City are four points behind in fourth spot, but have three matches in hand on the Reds.
Defender Jarell Quansah opened the scoring for Liverpool with under five minutes played, before Oakley Cannonier doubled the young Reds' lead eight minutes later to put them in a commanding position they would go on to maintain.
Cannonier was the man to step into the team as top scorer Layton Stewart, already on 13 goals this season in the U18 Premier League North division, was needed for the U23s for their game with Blackburn in Kirkby.
With Paul Glatzel injured once more, Stewart was tasked with taking another step in his development, leading the line for Barry Lewtas, but Cannonier and co had more than enough firepower without him.
Middlesbrough forward Joshua Coburn pulled a goal back with 20 minutes to play, but Liverpool left-back James Norris restored the Reds' two-goal advantage within three minutes from the penalty spot.
Harvey Blair added a fourth Liverpool goal as the clock edged towards 90 minutes to cap another fine performance for the Reds' U18s.
This was Marc Bridge-Wilkinson's side's 11th league match of the season to date, with the opening 10 games seeing his players score an average of 3.3 goals per match.
That average was further increased in this one 3.36 goals per game, despite the absence of Stewart, with Liverpool's U18s side once more proving to be great value in an attacking sense.
