U23s go four points clear atop PL2

This team usually seems to rely on a traditional 4-4-2, with Broadhead and Gordon being the wide players. They're very successful with it.

I know a couple have commented that the first team should try going back to basics, instead of the 2 centre backs, 2 wing backs, 1 defensive mid, 1 creative mid, 1 Number 10, 1 striker and 2 wingers that we play at the moment. How much simpler does 4-4-2 sound?

Credit to Unsworth again. I reckon that Astley, Feeney, Gibson, Adeniran, Gordon and Hornby might have a shout out of these lot. (Astley and Gordon started out as U18s this year so their progress is excellent.)

One thing that is clear from the 3+ minutes is that it appears that players are very strong, athletic and determined. One thing that struck me was when Blackburn broke and attacked on 3 or 4 occasions, the Everton back line looked quite exposed, but the speed of the Blues midfielders who were working hard to get back was great to see! The senior team could learn a lot from this!

Sambou's goal was outstanding and Hewelt pulled off at least 3 quality saves to keep Blackburn out. Blackburn had previously done very well against us so this was a BIG result!

Given there is little or nothing to cheer about in this enforced 2-week break, I am a little disappointed in EFC that they don't take the chance to promote the team more! How much would it have cost to make the game available to all, apart from the “members”?

It was just great to see the young Toffees win!

Still rising when it hits the net.

Well worth a look if you haven't seen it.

Excellent harrowing of the Blackburn centre-back, forcing him to cough up the ball to Hornby who sets up Sambou for a cracking finish.

It was Adeniran again making nuisance of himself in their penalty that led to Hornby's poached finish.

Best defence in the league by a country mile and then some: just 8 goals conceded in 17 games –next best is 19.

Five games to go. See it over the line, boys.

People are still criticising Davies and Kenny, and they got out of this level of football a couple of years ago. The gap is much bigger than it was when we had proper reserve team football, and it's why quite a few of the squad who won Premier League 2 two years ago, are now out on loan to Championship clubs.

That is a very impressive defensive record, Jay, which really puts the first team's defensive record in the spotlight, especially because they've conceded more than 8 from 17 set-pieces alone!

Tony, it will be interesting to see how many of the loanees return to Everton and get a start in the first team. Pennington is now at struggling Ipswich after failing to set Leeds alight when he was there. Dowell got rave reviews last week from the Sheffield Utd fans but was left out of the next team.

Walsh, the much vaunted youngster and star of the Premier 2 Winning side, is not getting a game at Bristol City. I don't know how Connoly, at Wigan, or Williams at Bolton are doing though.

Hadn't seen much of Hewelt, but he really is cat-quick, isn't he? And Sambou's strike was an absolute belter.

Adeniran's quality is obvious, and I would point out that Astley anchored the clean-sheet backline just a few days after his MOTM performance for the U-18s.

It's a game trying to spot which players will be able to play at the highest level. I championed giving Conor McAleny more first team game time and now he can't get a start for Fleetwood.

I'm not sure what has been gained by not having a proper reserve league, and I wonder how many proper games that Baines, Jagielka, and the fit again James McCarthy have had this season?

Re Connolly and Williams, both are at Bolton, which is headed for relegation.

Connolly recently regained his starting job at defensive mid and scored Bolton's game-winner last week at Birmingham on a brave header off a free kick, his second of the season.

Williams was having a fine season when he was injured in late December and missed 7 games. He returned this past Saturday as a half-time sub in an 0-4 home loss to Norwich.

Sadly, you're right about Liam Walsh. He had one start and a few sub appearances before he was dropped completely from the gameday squad in November. Bristol haven't lost a game since... current winning streak is 7.

Connolly is starting for Bolton (after his Wigan loan was terminated) and scored for them recently.

Williams came on as sub in Bolton's last game after being out for weeks. He's always been one of the first names on their team sheet.

Scored for them on his debut against Dundee in a 2-2 draw and played most of the game in a last-minute defeat against Celtic at the weekend.

As you say, it is so hard to predict who is going to make it from the academy. Conor looked as if he had a chance, but was badly set back a few years back when he broke his leg just a few games into a loan at Brentford which put him out for the season and he never really recovered.

I also thought Liam Walsh looked the real deal but, since his move to Bristol, he has barely had a look-in.

I just want to pick on one instance @10 above, Tony calling for an Under-21 league and a return to a Reserve league.

Let's take the Reserve League. You imagine (I'm guessing) that the host of fringe players comprising the bloated Premier League squads who don't get a game from one week to the next could compete against each other at a much higher level? Sounds like a no-brainer. Buying in to the mantra that they would obviously much prefer to play every week to keep match-fit?

I really don't think that's the case. Those days are long gone. I'm sure modern training keeps them on the ball without the need to play uninspiring, barely competitive Reserve football — there's a reason they were called "the Stiffs".

By contrast, the Under-23s seem the right graduate level for players coming through the Academy, as you really need to have made it by that age. And those fringe players could always play if they really wanted to, I'm certain of it. But they very rarely do.

The FA has been increasing the competitive nature with competitions against lower-league first-team sides (Checkatrade Trophy) and European couterparts (Premier League International Cup). You can argue it's not enough. But trying to turn the clock back is certainly not the way.

I know I'm pissing in the wind but let's stop this sad pining for the fjords of old. Time and life move only in one unerring direction: forwards... never backwards.

And there is precious little to get excited about with EFC at the moment, which is why threads on here resort to slagging off Barret Baxendale for want of something else to discuss. Apart from the usual Moanathon, "Boy's Pen Billy", Moshiri, Moyes,as well as Osman and Hibbert who still get stick after they've retired..

Looking back wistfully to happier times helps keep some of us sane, along with the faint hope that things may one day again reach those heights.

The best being those fringe players could really play if they wanted to? Fucking brilliant that is, isn’t it!

It's always nice to see some of our released young players doing well such as Aristote Nsiala, CB, at Ipswich. After leaving Everton he was released by Southport before building his career. And all clubs have a store of players released too early. Mostly, the managers get the culling right but, as Clarence Worley says, "That's the way they fall, but, sometimes, they fall the other way too."

Is it aimed at me (for thinking it) or the players (for clearly not wanting to do it)?

Nothing to do with nostalgia by the way, but more to do with the fact that this present system of not having real competitive football for first team players, on the fringe of things, or returning from injury, has been a backwards step in my opinion.

Everton have just brought in 3 players from overseas, who were all injured when the season began, so other than training, or a little friendly behind closed doors, they have had next to nothing to prepare them for a very different style of football, and this has possibly had them pining for old fjords, once they’ve been thrown into the deep end of English football, and maybe felt like they were pissing into the wind!

It'd be great for Everton and all the Premier League clubs to have actual competitive football at a level equivalent to these leagues and then have the opportunity to work their way up to the Championship, meaning no need to loan as many players out.

The reason we haven't seen it implemented here is it'll be the death of the English lower leagues. If Accrington Stanley are reduced to playing Premier League reserve sides, then it is thought they may as well pack in and give up. It's also thought that the Premier League clubs would hoover up more talent and so deny the lower league clubs players, purely to flesh out their B team squads, when these players have no chance of ever making the first team.

It's a debate I think will rumble on for another decade or longer but, before long, it will happen. As stated above, it'll be good for Everton, but probably bad for English football.

Combine this with a League club's U-23s knock out cup competition on firstly a regional and then two-legged national basis mostly to introduce something more competitive than the present situation.

I say bring back good old fashioned nostalgia and leave this "new fangled" nostalgia to those in their 30s and 40s.

Anything I've missed lads?

Winning home and away I had better stop before Michael sees his arse... 😁😁