Everton Under-18s assistant-manager, Keith Southern, was disappointed his sides second-half display after the Under-18s fell to a 6-1 defeat at Finch Farm.
Everton entered the game hoping to maintain their terrific run of form, but las it was not meant to be. England Under-17 international, Tyler Onyango, struck first for the Blues after a mountain of early pressure. However, two late first-half strikes from the visitors gave Liverpool lead at the break. Then, in a dominant second-period, Everton just couldn’t get near their Merseyside rivals as the away-side added four more to wrap up a disappointing afternoon
“When you see the scoreline it would suggest one thing, that we were pummelled from pillar to post, but it wasn’t like that. For 40 minutes, I thought we are by far the better team and could have been two or three goals ahead.” Southern told evertonfc.com.
“Second-half, we asked the players to come out and show the same spirit as they did in the first but we never really did that. I thought we crumbled a little bit and we didn’t do the basics well enough to stay in the game and eventually go on a create opportunities to win it.
“It is a learning curve for our young lads, setbacks happen and we have to we have to be a little bit more resilient in certain areas of the pitch, but we will be better for the experience, I am sure.”
Onyango celebrated his England Under-17s call up in the best possible way. His eighth-minute strike gave the Under-18s much deserved lead.
After a teasing ball into the box struck the post, Onyango was in the right place at the right time to slide the ball home.
Everton continued to carve out chances, this time the post coming to the away side’s rescue after Thomas Cannon’s sweetly-struck volley. Then, just minutes later, Cannon was in the thick of it again, heading over from Reece Hughes’ free-kick.
With just minutes left of the first-half, all them missed opportunities came back to bite the home-side, as Liverpool took the lead.
Everton losing possession deep in their own half, the ball was slid to an unmarked, Fidel O’Rourke, who curled the ball past McIntyre.
Then, bang on half-time, Liverpool struck again. Sebastian Quirk conceding the penalty, leaving Layton Stewart to send McIntyre the wrong way and put the away side ahead.
Unfortunately for the young Blues, Liverpool gained confidence from their first-half fightback, and in a dominant second period, they added four more.
Everton defender, Reece Welch, putting the ball into his own net before a lovely piece of play between Niall Brookwell and Jake Cain saw the latter add to Liverpool’s advantage.
As the game went on, nothing would fall for the hosts as the away-side completed the scoring. Leighton Clarkson and Tyler Horton firing past the hapless Blues keeper.
