Goals galore for the Everton Under 21s

Yesterday at 07:43 AM

Goal-happy Blues need to tighten up defence though

You simply cannot accuse Paul Tait's Everton Under 21s of being boring this season. The last three games have seen two 3-3 draws and a 2-4 defeat. Great to see the goals going in but a bit worrying that they leak so much at the back!

To put the results into context, as we've said many times, it is about developing young players and the fact that the line up has changed so many times over just those 3 games illustrates the point. Indeed, each game saw a change of goalkeeper with Fraser Barnsley, George Pickford and Zan-Luk Leban being rotated.

First in the sequence of games, we saw a 3-3 draw at Ipswich in the Premier League Cup with Martin Sherif taking adavantage of risky defending to give the Blues the lead after just 12 minutes. That advantage lasted for 20 minutes before Boatswain headed home for The Tractor Boys, 1-1. The next goals came in a 3 minute flurry before half-time, Jacob Beaumont-Clark seeing his run then fine 18 yard finish pulled back byMendel-Idown. 2-2 at the break. We had to wait a full 12 minutes for the Toffees to go in front again as Sherif finished a fine through ball from Luke Butterfield. In keeping with the end-to-end excitement, Ipswich equalised 1 minute later and it took some good goalkeeping by Fraser Barnsley to preserve the 3-3 draw. The main action is in the link below:

Next up was another 3-3 draw at home to Reading. This was the first of two successive appearances by first-teamer Nathan Patterson. The first goal went the way of the Toffees as, in the 18th minute, Charlie Whitaker intercepted a pass just inside the opposition half, set off to the edge of the penalty area, cut back and hit a fine 16 yard left-footer into the far corner, 1-0.

Two first-team squad players combined after 32 minutes as a fine Patterson cross was met by a towering Harrison Armstrong header at the far post, 2-0.

The lead was stretched to a seemingly unassailable 3-0 after 55 minutes as Omari Benjamin was fouled in the penalty area. Whitaker scored with a delightful panenka sending the goalkeeper the wrong way, 3-0.

Some calamitous defending saw that lead pulled back to 3-3 courtesy of a George hat-trick, the last goal being in the 90th minute, immediately after Armstrong saw a straight red card for a late challenge. The goals are in the link below:

Finally and most recently, the Blues collapsed to a 0-4 lead away to Wolves before they started a comeback of their own with a fine Whitaker goal from a Butterfield assist.

That was followed by another fine finish from Whitaker after a fine turn and cross from Jacob Beaumont-Clark, 2-4 the final score. The Blues goals are in the links below:

So, some exciting games and proof that the young Blues can score enough goals, clearly some work to do with some of the defending but there are promising signs!

Next up is the away derby with Liverpool on Saturday October 26th.