THERE was a delightful poignancy to seeing the way Wanderers’ Under-18s beat Liverpool on Saturday morning.

The clash of the two academies brought together two old adversaries who now occupy key roles at their respective clubs – Whites’ coach David Lee and his Reds counterpart Mike Marsh.

Students of Wanderers history will recall how dashing winger Lee ran full-back Marsh ragged in the famous 2-0 FA Cup replay victory at Anfield in January 1993 – first of the White Hot giantkillings under Bruce Rioch’s management – setting up the first goal for John McGinlay and going on to play arguably the best game of his career.

So it was no surprise that Marsh had something of a haunted look about him when when he was being interviewed after the game for Liverpool TV – since he’d just seen his highly-rated starlets undone by two modernday Bolton wide men – Chris Lester, who won and converted the 51stminute penalty for Wanderers’ first goal, and James Caton who beat the Liverpoool keeper at his near post for the second 13 minutes from time.

It must have sent shivers down his spine.

Tony Kelly, who played in Wanderers’ midfield on that memorable night at Anfield and who now assists Lee with the U18s, couldn’t resist pulling Marsh’s leg when they met up again.

“I reminded him that the nearest he got to Didsy in that replay was when he shook hands with him,” Kelly joked. “He didn’t lay a finger on him all night.

“In fairness to Marshy though he took it all in good spirits, even though he’d rather not have been reminded of his nightmare.”

Joking apart, though, Kelly enjoyed being back at the club where his career kicked off 32 years ago and meeting up again with Roy Evans, the former Liverpool boss who was on the coaching staff at Anfield in those days and who was commenting on the Academy game for the club’s own TV station.

But he was happier still to see the young Wanderers pick up another good result to assist in their development.

“The beauty of this under-18s squad is that eight of them are so young that they’ll still be with us next year,” he added. “And they’re already doing well.

“They’ve been given a chance because John Henry has taken so many for the reserves and they’ve been encouraged by seeing Joe Riley come through the Academy ranks, into the reserves and into the first team.

“So they know that with Owen Coyle in charge, they’ll get their chance if they are good enough, no matter how young they are.”