Brannagan: Senior players helped us through cup tie
Cameron Brannagan thanked Liverpool's senior stars for their key role in helping him and his fellow Academy graduates through Saturday's hard-fought FA Cup draw with West Ham United.
The midfielder was joined by the likes of Kevin Stewart, Brad Smith and Joao Carlos Teixeira in making the step up to the first team against the Hammers as Jürgen Klopp made changes in order to keep his squad fresh as a gruelling run of fixtures continues.
That quartet of youngsters did not look out of place as the Reds dominated Slaven Bilic's team only to be denied victory by some fine goalkeeping and wasteful finishing.
Brannagan insisted that is in part down to the senior players, who are willing to offer their support not just through the 90 minutes but also on the training field every day.
"Training with the team at Melwood really helps us because every day we're around the first team and they give us the boost," he told Liverpoolfc.com.
"When you train, they help you out and guide you. When you get on the pitch here it's completely different but they're still there to help you when you make a mistake and when you're doing well they'll congratulate you.
"I think every one of the young lads did really well and the older ones helped us through it."
The No.32 also reflected on the performance as a whole, offering his opinion that Liverpool were unlucky not to decide the tie inside the 90 minutes.
"At times I thought we played really well, we defended as a team really well," he added.
"Going forward we were great, created some good chances, [and were] unfortunate it didn't go in the back of the net.
"But now we've got the replay at Upton Park and hopefully we can do the job there."