U23s beat Flint Town in friendly

But now, full description of the game at the Everton Website: Mathis Hits Double In Under-23s' Pre-Season Win

Others missing: Sambou, Hewelt, Williams, Jones, Rodriguez, Pennington...

Presumably some will leave on loan and one or two (Dowell and Sambou?) may get to feature for first team

After their summer exploits, I'd love to see Dowell and Kenny given a proper run with the big boys pre-season too. You'd think with Seamus out Kenny has to be getting a chance from the bench at least?

Re Garbutt, I agree it doesn't look great which is a shame as I thought he looked a viable successor to Baines the last time he was given a proper run.

Welcome home, mate – you're back were you belong. Gem of a quote – especially on Sky... Give them fuckers something to talk about.

I forgot to take a pen with me which meant I couldn't make a note of the players names so I apologise for not being able to recall all of them.

Despite Flints physical and somewhat strong dubious tackling, Everton were deservedly up 1-0 at half time having been in control for nearly all the half and also having failed to score from the penalty spot. The players who impressed me most were as follows.

The right back No 2 (can't remember his name). He looked quite young and not very big but he played really well and more than held his own against much bigger stronger opponents.

Luke Garbutt had a very good game and looked more like the Luke Garbutt of old, hope he's coming back to the form he originally showed.

No 5 (again didn't get his name).He also played very well and played the whole game.

No 6 think it was Matty Foulds and he also played really well.

Josh Bowler looked impressive and won the penalty we missed. is exceptionally quick and quite tricky.

The rest played well enough without being anything special. I was disappointed with Harry Charsley as I expected more from him.

Everton made a raft of changes at half time and a few more during the half. Right from the restart we were a lot more faster and direct and could easily have scored more than the 6 goals that we did. All the replacements who came on played well and contributed to the dominant performance. Donkeor and Mathis look as if they could be really great signings and Baningime looks to have great potential.

However to my surprise the best player on the field by a mile was David Henen. After watching the Checkatrade Trophy game against Blackpool and having seen him a few times previously I posted I doubted very much whether he would make it as a premiership footballer.

After watching the second half for a while I asked the chap next to me who is the lad playing No 15 and he said it's Henen.

I don't know if he has grown and bulked up since seeing him previously or if it was because I am used to seeing players from more of a distance rather than standing right next to the pitch.

However he looked much bigger and stronger but with a lot of pace. He also seemed to show a lot more desire and aggression. He really drove the lads on. If he continues to play like this I think he could well make it into the first team. I big "if" I guess.

Anyway despite the standard of the opposition it was a really good performance.

From the line ups and the changes made, I am assuming that the right back was young Danny Bramhall, just moved up from the U18s and more of a midfielder or winger type so interesting that we played him at right-backand he did well.

The centre-back who played the full match appears to have been Alex Denny, usually a midfielder not a centre-back and a 2nd year Scholar with the U18s.

Nathan Broadhead came on at half-time in midfield; I thought he was a centre-forward too.