Premier League 2: Tottenham Hotspur under-23s 1 Liverpool under-23s 0

Tottenham Hotspur under-23s secured an impressive 1-0 win over their Liverpool counterparts in a Premier League 2 clash overshadowed by Adam Lallana’s red card.

The first game of February for Spurs saw them get their second win in a row whilst the Reds suffered their first loss in just under a month.

Wayne Burnett only made two changes to the Tottenham side that beat Manchester United 3-1 at Old Trafford the previous week Monday.

Mike Garrity, Liverpool’s under-23 boss, made seven changes to his side which won 1-0 against Derby on the previous Sunday.

The game began with Tottenham on the back foot and Liverpool dominating, but in the opening exchanges of the game, both teams gave away free kicks but no real threat on goal was made until the 10th minute.

Tottenham’s Dylan Duncan and Keanan Bennetts both had shots from just outside the area, but neither was on target.

The first real chance came when Dominic Solanke headed a Ben Woodburn cross towards goal, but it was saved in the middle of the goal in the 19th minute.

Just two minutes later and Danny Ings had a effort on goal with a header from the centre of the box, but it went wide.

Tottenham didn’t have many chances on goal until the 26th minute where Kazaiah Sterling had a right footed shot from the left side of the box after a through ball from Jack Roles, but it was comfortably saved in the centre of the goal by Kamil Grabara.

The first player into David Rock’s book was Liverpool’s George Johnston after a bad foul.

Shilow Tracey got a shot on goal soon after before he picked up a yellow card in the 38th minute.

The shot came a minute before Sterling’s cross to Tracey, who headed it goalwards, was easily saved in the centre of the goal.

The eventual goal scorer, Roles, had his first shot with an assist from Bennetts in the 41st minute. Roles’ right footed shot from outside the box was saved in the bottom right corner though.

After three minutes of added time, the first half ended 0-0 between the two sides with neither managing to get beat the under-23 goalkeepers.

Within a minute of the second half, George Marsh was shown a yellow card for a bad foul on Lallana, which was a sign of things to come.

After a few shots from both sides had come to nothing, Tottenham opened the scoring through the in-form Roles.

Assisted by Bennetts, Roles had a right footed shot from the centre of the area which passed Grabara and found the bottom right corner to put Spurs in the lead with 55 on the clock.

Three minutes later and Tracey had an effort from the right side of the area which went just wide of the goal.

Tottenham make their first substitution of the match in the 62nd minute with Duncan being replaced by Tashan Oakley-Boothe.

Less than 60 seconds later and the key talking point of the game occurred and it involved an England international.

A straight red card was shown to Lallana in the 63rd minute for violent conduct on Tottenham’s Marsh after the pair had come together when battling for a high ball.

Danny Ings went down with an injury four minutes later after a foul as things went from bad to worst for the Merseyside outfit.

This delayed play for a minute, but the game quickly resumed and when it did Tracey won a free kick on the right wing.

Adam Lewis was shown a yellow card in the 69th minute after a foul in the Tottenham half and less than 60 seconds later and Roles had another chance from outside the box, after a set piece, which just misses the left of the goal.

Liverpool made their first change two minutes later with Liam Millar replacing Yan Dhanda.

In the 76th minute, Ings gave a free kick away after a foul in Liverpool’s half and Oakley-Boothe took the set-piece, but it came to nothing and ended with a corner to Liverpool at the other end.

Tottenham made their second substitution with 12 minutes remaining as Oliver Skipp replaced Jonathan Dinzeyi due to injury.

The last ten minutes were, somewhat surprisingly, dominated by Tottenham, despite Liverpool trailing.

Bennetts had two shots on goal in the 81st and 83rd minute, both assisted by Roles, with the first from the left side of the area blocked and the second, also from the left side of the area, blocked.

Another yellow card was shown in the 84th minute with Jaden Brown getting a caution before Tottenham made their final substitution with Samuel Shashoua coming on to replace Sterling.

In the 87th minute, Timothy Eyoma won a free kick in Liverpool’s half after a foul by George Johnston and he received a second yellow which resulted in the Reds ending the game with nine-men.

The free kick resulted in Roles having another shot from the centre of the area which was blocked after a pass from Shashoua just outside the box.

Ben Woodburn won a free kick on the stroke of full time after a foul by Roles which saw him receive a yellow card.

The free kick was taken and saved by Luke O’Reily as Solanke had a header from the centre of the area.

In the second minute of stoppage time, Shashoua tried to get a second goal for Spurs, but his shot from the left side of the area was saved in the bottom left corner by Grabara.

After five minutes of added time, Rock blew the final whistle to confirm an excellent 1-0 victory for Tottenham over the league leaders.

Spurs are away to West Ham next Monday while on Tuesday Liverpool go to Bristol.

Tottenham under-23s: O’Reily, Eyoma, Brown, Marsh, C. Maghoma, Dinzeyi (Skipp 78), Tracey, Duncan (Oakley-Boothe 62), Sterling (S.Shashoua 84), Roles, Bennets.

Unused subs: De Bie, Pritchard.

Liverpool under-23s: Grabara, Masterson, Lewis, Johnston, Gallacher, Kane, Dhanda (Millar 72), Lallana, Ings, Solanke, Woodburn.

Unused subs: Camacho, Kelleher, Gomes, N.Williams.

Attendance: 891.