Liverpool 17-year-old striker fires 20th goal of the season as Jurgen Klopp will be watching on avidly

Liverpool under-18s moved into the FA Youth Cup as they edged past Fleetwood Town in the third round at Highbury Stadium.

The young Reds needed a late winner to avoid a replay against the League One club's academy - and it arrived through their man in form. Jayden Danns pounced in the fourth minute of stoppage-time to send Marc Bridge-Wilkinson's side into the next stage of the competition.

The striker had given Liverpool the lead before half-time before Hermann Daha equalised for Fleetwood. And after hitting the woodwork twice in the tie, Danns came up with the key moment to set up a fourth-round tie against Arsenal.

The 17-year-old has now scored 16 goals in 12 competitive games in the Under-18 Premier League, Under-18 Premier League Cup and FA Youth Cup. Danns also fired a double in a 4-3 friendly loss against Ajax last weekend and notched a brace in a 4-0 triumph over Reading in September - meaning he's bagged 20 goals for the season.

On the win over Fleetwood, young Reds head coach Bridge-Wilson told Liverpoolfc.com: “It was a hard game, a tough game, like we expected. Fleetwood gave us a really tough test, they were obviously really competitive. I thought they played quite well with the ball as well and gave us a lot of problems in the game.

“I don’t think we reached the level that we know we’re capable of, which is disappointing. But, obviously, we’re pleased to get through to the next round. The disappointment from my side is I know we can play better, I know our performance can be better. I know individually we can make better decisions and we can tidy our technical moments up so that we take control of the game.

“It wasn’t to be today and like I said, we’re just really pleased that we’ve managed to find a way through it even though we’ve not played particularly well. Two good goals, to be honest – two centre-forward goals. He could have had maybe another one or two, he got into the right areas and on a different day maybe he does.

“Maybe if we take a chance a little bit sooner than we did, maybe the game changes. But overall I think we’ve got to be pleased obviously to be into the next round, but we do know we’ve got a lot more work to do.”