U18s lose at home to Sunderland

Thursday, 12 April, 2018 6comments | Jump to most recent

Everton Under-18s fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat against Sunderland at USM Finch Farm on Tuesday afternoon.

After a tight opening, the young Blues fell behind on 15 minutes when Michael Collins turned a low cross into his own net.

The Black Cats soon went close to doubling their lead, but a low drive was comfortably held by Tom Murphy in the Blues goal.

At the other end, the hosts' best chance of the first half fell the way of Ellis Simms - but the forward's right-footed effort from an acute angle rattled off the post.

Seconds after the restart, Sunderland doubled their lead. Paul Tait's side rallied with both Simms and Korede Adedoyin forcing saves from the Sunderland goalkeeper, before both Collins and substitute Charlie Ball saw efforts blocked late on.

Everton U18s: Murphy, Corke, Joe Anderson (60' Jonathan Anderson), McKeown, Collins, Scully, Zuk (87' Warnock), Warren, Simms, Stanley (60' Ball), Adedoyin.
Suns not Used: N/A.

Reader Comments (6)

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Jim Bennings
1 Posted 12/04/2018 at 21:44:13

Great our Academy isn't it?
Not!

Jay Harris
2 Posted 12/04/2018 at 22:23:07

We seem to have lost the plot at every level lately. something must be going on.

Steve Ferns
3 Posted 13/04/2018 at 00:06:33

Well, we had the mayor playing... something tells me he can't get about the pitch too well.

Peter Gorman
4 Posted 13/04/2018 at 05:45:14

Jim, our academy is pretty great as it happens - recent results have been anything but.

Bit of a worrying trend; not sure if it is sending the spine of the team on loan, moving too many U18s into the U23s and U23s onto the first team bench or evidence of the unsettling effect the first team (not likely) or Unsy's rumoured departure (more likely) has been having, but certainly the results for both youth teams have been garbage of late.

Justin Doone
5 Posted 13/04/2018 at 09:25:01

It's disappointing but it's about development of players. Maybe a bit of realisation that you have to still put in the hard yards, life and sport get harder not easier.

What are the Unsy rumours? I've not heard anything but again maybe time to get out of the comfort zone and new experiences can help his own development.

From memory though I don't think his Mrs will let him go to far, they're both local and – just like Watson, Weir, Ablett, Stubbs – if they're good enough they'll be back.

Good luck to them all.

Peter Gorman
6 Posted 13/04/2018 at 12:14:10

Justin – the only rumour of which I know is his departure to Oxford Utd which bobs up every now and again despite him having turned them down in February.

I'm just speculating that it could have unsettled some youngsters in the same way we saw an entire first-team disintegrate into apathy whilst the press speculated about the fates of Martinez, Koeman and funnily enough, Unsy.

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