A cold and wet Tuesday night in November in the fishing port of Grimsby isn’t high on most people’s wish-list and it won’t be fondly remembered by Everton Under-21s’ head coach Paul Tait either.
The Toffees opted not to include any of the first-team players who need match practice in this one and, with hindsight, it was probably a wise decision as torrential rain in plummeting temperatures is only for the hardy or desperate.
The Blues had already suffered two defeats to League opposition in the Vertu
competition (the Football League Trophy) so I guess they were in that second category, desperate. There were first starts for Harry Tyrer in goal and also highly promising youngster Demi Akarakiri. Returning from long absences on the bench were Reece Welch, Kingsford Boakye and Jack Patterson. The formation was a fairly fluid 3-4-3, dropping back into a back 5 when they were under pressure.
The Blues started brightly and certainly didn’t look second best, an early strong run and cross from marauding right back George Finney couldn’t be converted but there were good signs.
Everton actually went ahead in the 21st minute, a good interception and carry from young Akarakiri fed Jacob Beaumont- Clark and he took the shot on his weaker right foot to take the lead, 1-0.
With the Blues on the front foot, a turning point came sadly just 10 minutes later as Coby Ebere held the ball well before releasing Beaumont-Clark again. The young winger beat the offside trap well but, as he homed in on goal, his hamstring clearly went. I really liked that he still tried to get his shot away despite the obvious serious nature of the injury.
Unfortunately, the Blues fell apart a little in the space of the closing 7 minutes of the half with two similar goals, firstly Aled Thomas was caught in possession and fellow centre back Eli Campbell lost his man for the second, 1-2 at the interval.
Switching to a back 4 in the 2nd half with the introduction of the lively winger Boakye, there was early promise, quickly undone as Francis Gomez missed his tackle on the right of the Blues’ area and The Mariners scored an easy 3rd goal, 1-3.
Despite the attacking threat of the Boakye/ George Finney combination down the right, the Blues were unlucky to concede a 4th as, in a packed penalty area, Campbell’s clearance struck the body of Will Tamen and fell very generously for a Grimsby forward to put them 4-1 ahead.
It was Tamen who clawed the Blues back to 2-4 as he cleverly headed home following a corner by substitute Jack Patterson.
As the Blues pressed they were grateful to a double stop from Tyrer but there was nothing he could do to prevent the 5th as, with 3 minutes of normal time remaining, a shot, possibly going wide, deflected nastily of substitute Reece Welch and flew past him, 2-5.
Another substitute George Morgan had better luck as he grabbed his first goal at U21 level this season with a close range header, it ended 3-5, an end to end game, soggy shirts and comprehensively beaten but learning points a-plenty.
Paul Tait was realistic afterwards despite the crushing scoreline:
“It’s why we’re in the tournament. It’s the development pluses and the development opportunities that the lads have taken from that tonight are excellent. We don’t want to be on the wrong side of that result. No one wants to be stood there when we’ve conceded five goals, but the bigger picture is they’re going to learn from it. They have to learn from it.”
Meanwhile on Saturday in the North-East, Keith Southern’s Under-18s lost to high-flying Newcastle United. The scoreline was 1-3 and ended the sequence of 3 straight wins. A consolation was that winger Kean Wren (below) once again scored for the Toffees, his 4th goal in the last 3 games. The young man from West Yorkshire has a happy knack of finding himself in goalscoring positions.
Next up for the U21s is a trip to West Bromwich Albion on Friday evening while the U18s have a Saturday lunchtime home game against Blackburn Rovers.
