U23s lose opening match to local rivals

David Unsworth's Under-23s side kicked-off their PL2 campaign today with a visit down the road to the Liverpool Academy that did not turn out to his liking.

The selected squad may contain pointers for Carlo Ancelotti's plan on the first-team traveling to London for the afternoon's big game in the Premier League, with Branthwaite, Kenny, Gibson and Nkounkou among those staking a claim for senior consideration, none of them in Unsworth's squad.

The game kicked off at 1 pm but Everton went behind to an early goal that was the only one of the game. Slack defending allowed Liverpool too much space inside the box to put the Reds ahead inside the first minute.

Everton pushed forwards after that goal, but just couldn't find the breakthrough. The Reds goalkeeper was forced into saves from Ellis Simms, Dennis Adeniran and Nathan Broadhead as the match progressed but it was clear the young Blues were not playing at their best.

Playing a derby in the first match of the season is always tough of course, but a strong side was chosen for this clash. Josh Bowler was out on loan in the Championship last season, Callum Connolly was away playing first team football as was Nathan Broadhead.

Add that to goalscoring machine Simms up front, the experience of Beni Baningime and the influential Dennis Adeniran and Unsworth later admitted this was a side that could and should play a lot better than they did.

"We under-performed and we've got to be honest and I think you've got to be honest with young players. The team we had out, we expected to win the game and expected to play in a certain way. We're expecting them to work as hard as they could and a lot of them let us down.

"Sometimes you've got to be brutally honest like that because it's the shock that they need. If they think they can turn up against any Liverpool team at any age group and just win a game, no matter who we have out, football doesn't work like that.

"Liverpool were there for the taking, we had numerous chances, but we didn't work hard enough, it's as simple as that."

Everton U23s: Tyrer, John, Connolly, Iversen (68' Hughes), Ouzounidis, Astley, Bowler, Baningime, Broadhead, Simms [Y], Adeniran.
Subs not Used: Leban, Anderson, Higgins, Price.

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