On Wednesday evening Everton Under-21s travelled south to take on Boreham Wood who are sitting proudly three points clear and unbeaten at the top of the National League table, the 5th tier of football in England. The competition was the National League Cup whereby teams from that league take on Under 21 teams from the Premiership. It’s an experience which has not always been pleasant as young professionals match up against seasoned senior footballers who have little respect for their glamourous opponents.
The Toffees lined up as below, minus leading scorer Braiden Graham away on international duty with the Northern Ireland senior team and with youngster Jonathan Nsangou rewarded with a start following his fine performances with the Under 18s.
The match burst into life in the 73rd minute with a lovely goal by the Blues. The move was constructed with a low pass of perfect precision by goalkeeper George Pickford, a great piece of centre forward play by Cieran Loney, controlling and shielding the ball expertly before laying it off perfectly for Harvey Foster. His fifty yard carry of the ball and weighting of pass was classy and the run and finish by Benjamin, narrowly avoiding being offside was also top quality, 1-0. See the goal below, that pass from Pickford was amazing!
What followed, a minute from the end of normal time, was farcical. Josh van Schoor attempted to shepherd the ball across the line for a goal-kick under pressure from a Boreham attacker. The ball maybe didn’t have quite enough pace on it to take that risk but, having done the job effectively, we saw the attacker theatrically hit the turf, actually off the field of play but, as if by magic, landing with his fingertips in the penalty area.
The referee looked rightly unimpressed until, with a Boreham Wood player “in his face”, he bizarrely changed his mind and awarded a spot-kick. It was converted and took the tie to penalties as per the rules of the competition, 1-1, and an embarrassing piece of work by the official.
With the penalties the Blues five kicks went as follows:
Benjamin cool finish (1), Foster smashed against the bar, Loney a beautiful shot sending the ‘keeper the wrong way (2), Gardner a great low shot to the goalkeeper’s right having sent him “to the shops” (3) and a delightfully cool finish from Carrington (4). Boreham hit the bar with one and Pickford saved another, 4-2 on the kicks.
Full highlights are below:
It wasn’t just me that was impressed, head coach Dave Hughes was glowing in his praise:
Another recent result for the ‘21s was a goalless draw away to Reading in the League which saw Harvey Foster dismissed for a second yellow card. He was of course eligible to play in the National League Cup but will miss the next league game on October 16th.
Unfortunately the younger group, the U18s, suffered a thrashing at home to high-riding Manchester City a week ago. They found themselves 0-4 down by half-time and a further 2 second-half goals made it a forgettable 0-6 reverse. If it’s any consolation, City had averaged 4 goals a game in their previous 5 outings so the Toffees are not alone in getting beaten by a top team!
The U18s next outing is on October 17th away to Stoke City.
