Quality.
The YouTube and TV coverage makes this report rather redundant, but I'm still gonna give it.
Ward- couple of excellent saves including a worldy in the first half. Maybe could have done better for some of the goals. Excellent distribution, chipping passes to the full backs with ease.
Watson- brilliant pass for the first goal. Very good for the first 70 minutes, then faded a bit. Up against an excellent player, I thought Ojo was the only Liverpool player who would have got in our side.
Dickie- missed a header, and lost a yard of pace due to cramp which was responsible for the fourth (?) goal. However, a good performance with that aside, particularly on the ball.
Hyam- nearly responsible for a red card or goal when he tried to take on too many players. Always offering a passing option.
Owusu- great run for our second. Maybe should have been taking up better defensive positions. Had to take the yellow.
Kuhl- a truly excellent captain. Good game generally, but didn't do anything particularly outstanding- except the captaining obviously.
Fridge- shades of Leigertwood in the way he shielded the ball to keep possession at times. Some fantastic throws down the line, but the ones into the box didn't work.
Kelly- some good passing, particularly for the third goal. Not sure he's quite on Tanner's level yet though.
Stacey- unlucky not to get a goal. Fairly quiet for much of the match, but did well with the late charge.
Fosu- quite quiet, but showed good intelligence to cover for roaming team mates, and did the old Dave Kitson trick of not interfering with play when in an offside position for the second goal. Booked for dissent. Should have had another penalty, but for some reason referees seem disinclined to give them to him.
Cardwell- excellent, probably MOTM. His first goal was top drawer. The second was rather fortuitous on his part, but he did well to keep going.
DTC ((DJ-TC?)- a threat with his pace. Took his goal well and ran the channels to good effect.
Husin- bit of a strange sub, but he did excellently, particularly in the final push where he really drove the team on.
McLennan- his pace came in handy at the back, but his attacking contribution was better. Excellent goal, continues our run of having a left back score in every (home, cup) match!
Referee 4- pretty dire. Should have given out more cards, particularly for Liverpool's timewasting, an off the ball foul on Dickie, and an attempted trip on DCT who was through (bizarrely signalled that the defender had "got the ball"). He clearly knew timewasting was an issue because he warned Fridge for taking as long as always at throw, but then kept letting them get away with kicking the ball away.
Assistants 9- truly excellent performances, particularly from the guy on the near side with the yellow flag who got the two big decisions (our second and third goals) absolutely right. Only miss out on 10s because of a few questionable throw in decisions (mostly in our favour).
Other academy lads 10- totally got behind the U18s with great chanting. Unfortunately it looks like some of them are getting lifetime stadium bans for going on the pitch
