Both Everton youth teams fall to defeat

Tuesday evening saw Paul Tait’s Everton Under 21s head down the M6 to the Midlands to take on Tamworth FC who compete in the National League (the 5th tier of English football). This was a National League Cup tie.

It was a much changed team for Paul Tait against a Staffordshire team comprised of mainly their fringe players including several part-time players who had done their normal job earlier in the day!

As the game got under way, something I had never ever seen before and probably never will again. Tamworth started the game and after 30 seconds made 3 substitutions. The bizarre pre-planned changes were to satisfy the rules of the competition which force the team to play a certain number of players from the previous game to maintain the “integrity” of the contest. So much for that! It was a piece of rule circumvention which nearly rebounded on the home side as they finished the game with an injured goalkeeper and no substitutes left to use!

The Toffees lined up in an unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation as pictured below, Jack Patterson taking the armband. It was clearly a rotational line-up to allow Paul Tait to give valuable minutes to players such as Bradley Moonan, Luca Davis and Joshua Van Schoor and also Demi Akarakiri making a step up from the U18s.

Maybe it was because of so many changes or perhaps because the Blues had wing backs in Odin Samuels-Smith and Joshua Van Schoor who are more suited to playing in a flat back 4, but the team could not get going. There was a succession of poorly-weighted long high balls fired 70 yards towards the front two of Coby Ebere and Braiden Graham that they could do little with. In central midfield, the trio of Patterson, Akarakiri and Gomez were enjoying a fair amount of possession without ever really threatening as the play was either too direct or the narrow team formation was not able to progress the ball into good positions.

The Blues fell behind disappointingly after 14 minutes when Tamworth were allowed too much space to get a shot away from 25 yards. Although George Pickford got down well to the shot, his parried save fell kindly for Mols to put Tamworth ahead, 0-1.

Chances did arrive for the Blues to equalise as Akarakiri, Ebere, Graham and Thomas all either tested the goalkeeper or missed the target but it was a disjointed display that left them trailing at half-time.

On the hour, a raft of 4 changes made a difference to the dynamic of the team as the in-form George Finney and Justin Clarke came on along with Luis Gardner and Callum Bates. After 4 minutes on the field, Braiden Graham scored his 4th goal of the season as he took control of a neat Bates pass and from 15 yards, he put a delightful shot into the corner of the goal. 1-1 and penalties looking likely. See Graham’s nice take below:

After the Tamworth goalkeeper injury scare, The Lambs actually went ahead in the 84th minute following very poor, passive defending by the Blues. A free kick was delivered into the heart of the penalty area and Lynch pounced whilst the Blues hesitated. 1-2.

It’s fair to say that the card-happy referee let the occasion get the better of him as he booked 4 players for dissent at various times in the game and sent off Aled Thomas in added time. Almost straight away, weirdly, he marched dramatically across the pitch to brandish a yellow to the bemused Blues manager Paul Tait. He clearly couldn’t understand why, all of a sudden the game was about a theatrical referee display! It stayed 1-2.

Meanwhile, on Saturday there was a thriller in Yorkshire as Leeds United hosted Keith Southern’s Under 18s at their training ground, Thorp Arch.

The young Toffees fell behind after 21 minutes when, as their own corner kick broke down, a slick Leeds move left Morris clear to drive home from 15 yards. 0-1

An equaliser came just 4 minutes later, this time from another right wing corner, Akaraki picking out Ceiran Loney (pictured below) to nod home cleverly at the far post, 1-1.

The Blues seemed determined to make lives difficult for themselves again when, after two chances to clear inside their own penalty area, they failed to do so and left a tap-in for White from 6 yards, 1-2.

Bad luck saw Blues’ Luis Gardner’s clearance from the edge of his own area smash off Leeds’ Firth and thunder past Lukjanciks in the Toffees’ goal, 1-3.

Lukjanciks was left rooted for Leeds 4th in added time as White bagged his second, arcing a fine free-kick around the defensive wall, half-time and 1-4.

Better closing down and interplay in the 49th minute between Ray Robert and Malik Olayiwola (pictured below) saw the latter fire home at the second attempt to make it 2-4

Things were looking promising for a Blues comeback when in the 80th minute the ball was worked out to Kean Wren who crossed for Ray Robert (pictured below) to score a proper striker’s goal from 5 yards out. 3-4.

Hopes of the comeback were truly dashed after 90+7 minutes as visibly tiring Blues legs retreated allowing Thompson to fire home to make it 3-5.

Next up are the following two fixtures:

Friday September 19th: Everton U21 v Aston Villa

Saturday September 20th: Middlesbrough v Everton U18

0 Comments