Pourie off but Liverpool win

Oct 9 2007 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL under-18s scored an excellent 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers at the Kirkby Academy on Saturday, but the victory came at a price with German striker Marvin Pourie being sent-off for retaliation.

First-half goals from Astrit Ajdarevic and Nathan Eccleston made it three wins from their last four Premier Academy League matches for Hugh McAuley’s side.

But they will now be without their top scorer Pourie for three matches after he retaliated to a bad challenge in the second half and was sent off.

Swedish midfielder Adjarevic opened the scoring within the first 15 minutes. Following a corner, Adjarevic fired in a superb volley from the edge of the box.

Then England youth international forward Eccleston followed up his double last week against Stoke City by with another against Blackburn midway through the first half. From David Amoo’s pull-back Eccleston was on hand to score.

Everything appeared to be fine until Pourie’s sending off but afterwards Liverpool’s 10 men had to dig in to maintain their advantage and claim the three points. And they could easily have added to their two goals when schoolboy substitute Adam Wilson hit the bar on his debut.

McAuley said: “It was a physical and hard game, but the lads adapted themselves very well. The effort they put in for the 90 minutes was really excellent, particularly when we were down to 10 men. There was a lot of hard work involved in getting back and they dealt with it very well as well as creating chances.”

On Pourie’s dismissal, he added: “You can get kicked all over the place, but sometimes that is the game. He has to learn to accept any stick that is going around and just get on with his own game and let the referee and linesman protect him hopefully. It is a harsh lesson, but he will learn it.”

Liverpool travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday (kick-off 11am) looking to build on their good recent form.

Gary Mackay-Steven was left on the bench against Blackburn with a tight hamstring, but should be fit for this weekend.

LIVERPOOL UNDER-18s: Bouzanis; Irwin, Kennedy, Threlfall. Kelly, Amoo, Highdale, Adjarevic, Kacaniklic (Wilson 70); Eccleston, Pourie. Subs: MacKay-Steven, McDonald, Taylor, McGiveron.