U18s finish off with a draw

, 5 August, 7comments | Jump to most recent

Everton Under-18s ended their participation in the Durban U19 Tournament with a 1-1 draw with South Africa Under-19s thanks to a second-half equaliser from George Newell and great work by Ciaran O'Loughlin in goal.

The Young Blues' team of first-year scholars knew they could not progress to the next phase of the competition after losing to Santos U19s and Feyenoord U19s in their first two matches but they avoided three losses when Newell fired home from James Yates's pass.

Everton U18s: O'Loughlin; Yates, Mellon, Yarney, Thorniley (61' Graham); Bainbridge, Connolly (61' Davies), Broadhead (76' Brewster); Holland, Kinsella (71' Dyson), Newell (81' Birch).
Subs Not Used: Hewelt, Charsley, Dowell

Reader Comments (7)

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Mark Pierpoint
1 Posted 05/08/2014 at 19:34:27

Good experience for the lads. No shame whatsoever in losing to Feyenoord. A lot of the current Dutch team have come through their system. Read an article in the paper saying how highly they are regarded. Santos similar probably. Well done lads.

Steven Jones
2 Posted 06/08/2014 at 06:18:04

Interesting we took an under 18Â’s team and with the philosophy of progressing talent even faster up the age groups, even those would have been even younger.
All the others were U19Â’s and from the odd remark they may have had one or two even older players in there.
Also good comments from the lads about possession football and "the way we like to play"
This is great preparation for representative teams and for EFC development.

Matt Traynor
3 Posted 06/08/2014 at 06:21:31

Slightly off-topic, but a European U21 league is to start this season, with I think 8 teams from England, and some from Scotland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain I think. It's being driven by the Premier League.

Apparently it was the top 8 from last season, but Liverpool chose not to enter, so West Ham have replaced them. No Everton I'm afraid as we didn't finish in the top 8, with so many U21-eligible players on 1st team duty.

Matt Traynor
4 Posted 06/08/2014 at 06:25:39

Ah, found some further info re the teams. They're from Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Holland and Germany, as well as England:

The clubs are: Chelsea, Fulham, Leicester, Manchester City, Manchester United, Southampton, Sunderland, West Ham.

The eight clubs from Europe are: Celtic (Sco), Athletic Bilbao (Spa), Benfica (Por), Borussia Monchengladbach (Ger), Schalke (Ger), Porto (Por), PSV Eindhoven (Hol), Villarreal (Spa).

Phill Thompson
5 Posted 06/08/2014 at 12:34:54

I think it was the 7 or so players out on loan which hampered the u21s last season . It looks like we'll do same this time e. g. Lundstram to Blackpool. With last years u18 looking to progress too it's a difficult balance between loans and being competitive , particularly if there is a "reward" of a place in a more competitive u21 league next season.

Ajay Gopal
6 Posted 06/08/2014 at 13:04:13

On the OS, Sharpy has slammed the performance of the youngsters in the last match against South Africa as "not acceptable". Only the GK seems to have played a blinder otherwise the Everton U-18s would have lost by a hat full. After 2 good performances, I think the lads went for an evening out :-)

Dave Abrahams
7 Posted 07/08/2014 at 12:36:53

You have to remember when watching the U18s that quite a few of the lads can be as young as 15 or 16 so consequently are giving a few years away.

Last year, I watched the U18s vs Man City when they won the title; they had two or three promising players, Joe Williams and Davies in midfield and Courtney Duffus who grafted all game upfront on his own and did very well. They won without their two best players, Ryan Ledson and Jonjoe Kenny, who were on duty with the England U17s.

ItÂ’s hard at times, when judging young players, to determine who is likely to make it or who will not.

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