News'Our character and willingness to work for each other was of a really high level'
Simon Wiles praised the character his Liverpool U18s side displayed in Tuesday night's 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the U18s Premier League Cup.
Having fallen 2-0 behind, Josh Sonni-Lambie pulled a goal back for the young Reds, who were unfortunate to not find the equaliser they pushed so hard for.
The hosts also had to play the final quarter of an hour with 10 players, following centre-back Harvey Owen's dismissal for receiving two yellow cards.
Despite the result, Wiles believes there were plenty of positives to take from the performance – read his post-match interview with Liverpoolfc.com below…
On the character shown by his team against Villa…
For what the game gave them, I thought their character, their attitude, their willingness to work for each other was of a really high level. With the dynamic that had thrown our way with us going down to 10 men, I couldn't fault any of them and the work-rate increased and they started working even harder. We started getting momentum and putting them on the back foot. With the opportunities we created, I thought we were unfortunate not to come away with anything.
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On the way the team stuck together despite going 2-0 down…
When we looked back at that at half-time unfortunately it was two individual moments – which is going to happen in development football. We are not ones who dwell on mistakes and we want them to get back on the ball and build up the confidence. The lads have got to be brave and they have got to get on the ball, and with that comes risks and unfortunately we got punished with that. I thought the way the lads responded to that and the way that we scored our goal – which was a really well-worked goal and not a mistake from their side – was a really good finish from Josh. That was really pleasing and from that moment we started to get the ball down and worked the areas that we know we need to get into. I thought we looked really threatening.
On creating good chances right up to the last kick of the game, when Joe Bradshaw was denied from close range…
I thought that was going in and just before that Alvin [Ayman] was unlucky with a looping header back across the 'keeper, who did well to save that. When you look at the amount of bodies Aston Villa were putting on the line to protect their lead, I think that's only credit to our lads for putting them under pressure in those moments. So, there's loads of positives to take from it and if we can keep putting in that level of work-rate and intensity then we go again at Burnley on Saturday. That will be another test for us and that's what is really good about this league. We have just been up against an Aston Villa side who were high-flying last year. That was a really good marker for us and Burnley away is another challenging fixture, so we will see how the lads bounce back from this. We go forward, we keep developing and see where we get to with these boys.