RESERVES ROMP TO BOLTON TRIUMPH
Paul Hassall at Prenton Park 02 September 2009
Liverpool Reserves claimed their first success of the Barclays Premier Reserve League North season with a comfortable 3-1 win over Bolton Wanderers on Wednesday night.
A first-half strike from Gerardo Bruna, a bizarre goal from substitute Jordy Brouwer and a late third from Alex Kacaniklic secured the three points for John McMahon's men as they got life at their new Prenton Park home off to a winning start.
Adam Blakeman did pull one back for the Trotters on the hour mark but it was not enough to deny the home side, who provided the perfect response to last week's opening day defeat at Blackburn Rovers.
Ahead of the clash, McMahon opted to give a debut to French teenager Chris Mavinga and all eyes were trained on the former Paris Saint German starlet as he kicked off his Liverpool career alongside Daniel Ayala at the heart of the defence.
However, it was a familiar face in the form of Bruna who caught the eye in the early exchanges, firing a seventh minute shot well wide, before he brought some much-needed cheer to the spectators that had braved the rain by giving the Reds the lead on 15 minutes.
Nikola Saric was tripped on the edge of the visitors' penalty area, allowing the Argentina-born playmaker to step up and crash a deflected effort beyond the dive of Adam Bogdan.
A head injury to Trotters defender Joe Riley then forced a lengthy stoppage in play that did little to help the flow of the game, with the adverse weather conditions also hindering the hosts' attempts to play attacking football to feet.
When the contest finally resumed Rhys Bennett headed a rare Bolton chance over the top from a left wing corner on 25 minutes before Stephen Irwin cut in from the left and scuffed a low 20 yarder that was easily gathered by Bogdan.
With half-time approaching the downpour of torrential rain subsided, sparking an instant improvement in the quality of football, with Liverpool creating a sudden raft of chances.
On 35 minutes Irwin and Eccleston combined well down the left flank, but unfortunately for the home side no-one was on hand to turn home the latter's low ball across the six yard box.
The Reds continued to look the more likely and a well worked corner minutes later saw Bruna pick out Dani Pacheco just outside the area, but the Spaniard's sizzling drive flew just wide of the upright.
David Amoo then showed Chris Stokes a clean pair of heels before ghosting into the penalty area on the right hand side and crashing a near post shot wide from a tight angle.
After a slow start it had developed into 45 minutes of one-way traffic, but deep into first-half injury-time Peter Gulacsi was forced to produce an outstanding save to keep out Javlon Campbell's testing drive after Mavinga had been caught in possession inside his own penalty area.
With the warning of Bolton's threat on the counter-attack still fresh in their minds, the Reds restarted the match determined to double their advantage.
A searching run and cross from Amoo was volleyed just wide by Saric before Bruna clipped the bar direct from a right-wing corner.
The writing was on the wall for the visitors and Liverpool finally got their second of the game on 55 minutes, albeit via somewhat fortuitous circumstances.
Brouwer replaced Saric on 54 minutes and within seconds of taking to the field was celebrating a goal, chasing down a back pass and charging Bogdan's attempted clearance into an empty net.
At this point it looked like being a question of how many McMahon's men would score, but the away side began to rally and got back into it following an almighty goalmouth melee on 59 minutes.
A cross from the right found Michael O'Halloran who cut inside before drilling in a shot that was beaten away by Gulacsi. Mavinga then cleared off the line when the rebound fell for Danny Ward before the Reds stopper was again forced to parry into the path of Blakeman who crashed home from inside the six yard box.
Liverpool responded and could have extended their lead soon after with Bogden making smart saves to thwart both Pacheco and Bruna.
The away side were pushing hard for a late equaliser and the Reds began to exploit the space.
Substitute Kacaniklic finally sealed the points on 80 minutes when he pounced on a loose ball and fired into the bottom corner after Eccleston had seen his attempted shot blocked.
