News from the Academy: High Noon ends barren sequence

Liverpool Daily Post, 14 Sept 2004
High Noon ends barren sequence
Academy Football with Chris Wright, Daily Post

KARL NOON scored on his return from injury to give Liverpool under-18s
their first win of the season at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Liverpool had lost all three of their opening FA Premier Academy League
matches and faced a strong Middlesbrough side, many of whom were part of
their triumphant march to FA Youth Cup glory in May.

But John Owens's side produced their best performance of the season to pick
up their first points.

Huyton striker Noon, who celebrates his 18th birthday tomorrow, had two
chances to open the scoring in the first half, but was denied by the keeper.

He made amends early in the second half by scoring the only goal of the
match after latching on to captain Daniel O'Donnell's high ball out of
defence before finishing well.

After impressing in recent matches, midfielder Paul Barrett was again in
good form - alongside Danny Guthrie - on his first match since officially
signing for Liverpool after leaving Manchester City.

A delighted coach Owens said: "It was a very windy day and we were
concerned about the level of football that would be played. But both sides
did extremely well.

"A lot of that, on our part, was down to the midfielders Danny Guthrie and
Paul Barrett, keeping the passes simple and combining well with the forwards.

"What we planned was to keep things tight, because we had let in three
goals the week before, but still having an eye on the counter attack. In
the end we had much more possession than Middlesbrough.

"It was very much a team performance, whereas in previous games we had had
too many not near their best performance.

"On Saturday most players were probably playing their best game of the season.

"When that happens the team performance is raised greatly - and we got the
reward for that against Middlesbrough."

Dave Shannon's U16s won their first match of new season, 2-1 against
Middlesbrough.

Goals from Lee Woodward and Ray Putterill gave the schoolboy side a winning
start to the campaign.

LIVERPOOL UNDER-18s: Willis, Peltier, D Smith, Threlfall, O'Donnell,
Barrett, Guthrie, Townley (Frayne 85), Noon (J Smith 85), Hammill (Kelly
85), Wilkie.