Everton U23s secure a late win over Burnley

Michael "Kick-off is 7pm in Southport tonight and the game will be streamed live for your enjoyment."

"For your enjoyment"! Delicious. Unlike Saturday, I guess you're saying!

Hehe, Brent. Yes, a little tongue-in-cheek there. Something about "Hope Eternal" as one of our punters keeps attesting.

Great run down the left by Dobbin on 12 minutes to win a corner. Uses a low centre of gravity to get round his man.

Much slower paced game than Leeds.

Watching Andy Murray with one eye and the U23s with the other. Good battling run from Dobbin just now from a wide position, his pull-back should have been finished off.

Interesting, Reece Welch is playing left centre-back; good to see Unsy moving him to different positions.

Good move out from our own corner flag. Good ball into the box and corner won.

Yep, this is definitely Michael's fault – “for your enjoyment” indeed.

What is this word ‘enjoyment’ that keeps on getting mentioned?

Looks like Mills coming on.

"Enjoy the journey, enjoy every moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing."

Matt Biondi

Evening gents... listening to the commentary on this game, I think I will start a petition to make Ian Snodin our new manager because he ticks all the boxes:

Stop playing it back to the keeper,
Get the ball forward,
Move the ball quicker,
Run at the defenders,
If you sight the goal... shoot!
For corners, leave two up – that means they will have to put 3 back to mark (more room in the box, less confusion).

All this prating around at the back pisses me off. If you look back at footage of our '80s games, as soon as the keeper collects the ball, the TV camera goes straight to the opponents' half because that is where it ends up... and straight away, they are on the back foot. Simple.

Yeah, he's been frustrated with the sidewards and backwards passing, as he called it, Don.

Not a lot going on and, as you'd expect at this level, littered with mistakes. Young Dobbin forgetting the ball as he went on his run made me smile!

Nice effort from Cannon. Good direct ball out to him and made his own space for a nice curling shot.

Burnley playing some decent stuff to be fair. Rooney's cousin in defence for them. Hadn't put 2 and 2 together.

Danny... "littered with mistakes"?

Is that the U23s or the first team you are refering to?

Warrington has a decent change of pace and direction, with a lovely range of passing on him.

Kyle John, the right back, is having a decent game too.

Not sure Dobbin is doing much to stake a claim for Rondon's place tonight. Only Tucker for Burnley looks capable of making an immediate step up.

Well, I have been banging on about having a consistent system throughout the club to make the transition to first team smoother, Don!!!

Having a good period now.

Ray,

I would rather have Dobbin, the pantomime horse, than Rondon.

Open game now; nice to see.

Great goal Hughes from long-range free-kick.

Well put away! 1-0

Lovely free kick. Much better the last 10 minutes.

Great free-kick. Warrington very impressive.

Danny, Warrington is a consistently solid midfielder. Really like the guy.

Yes Brent, Danny, Jay... he has stood out again, some beautiful passing, he has the vision and ability to weight them just right.

Max Thompson, the Burnley No 14, was in our U18s a couple of years ago. He never really got many games, left in the December I think, just before Covid.

Within a month, he was in their U23s and a short while later, Burnley had an injury crisis and he actually featured on the first team bench a couple of times.

Hughes, Dobbin, Hughes, Cannon — goal!

Much better now.

Lovely worked 2nd goal.

Hughes with a goal and assist, big Dunc looking on.

And Warrington gets a really sound round of applause as he comes off in the 86th minute. Thoroughly deserved. They know their football, this Southport lot!!

Jay H,

What's Big Dunc going to say to the FSW?

"Well, boss, these kids are better than we are..."

Better second half with Warrington and sub Hughes impressing. Still don't think the first team squad are under much threat from these youngsters – but they certainly should be!

Stanley, that was another fine mess. And a let off.

Ray,

You put Rondon and Iwobi in this team and they would still be shit.

You put a couple of these lads in the first team and they might suprise everyone.

Don,

He's certainly gonna say there are better options than Rondon – even at this level. 😂

Lovely move and interplay for the second goal.

Good second half by the boys. The young sub, Rhys Hughes, done very well. Goal and great link up with Dobbin for the assist.

Dobbin grew into it after an erratic first half, but these are young players.

I called out Kyle John, the right-back, earlier but Warrington was the stand-out for me. As well as his range of passing, to steal Ian Snodin's chips, he took the midfield by the scruff of the neck.

Jay, but will he listen or – more to the point – will he be able to understand him?

Danny (36),

I never saw the game, read about it too late but I was impressed with Warrington in a couple of FA Youth Cup games last season then he seemed to go off the boil the next couple of times I saw him.

Glad he had a good game tonight. When he played well, he looked like a proper footballer who knew how to get about the midfield and bring other players into the game.

I hope he continues to improve; maybe he deserves a place on the bench to boost his confidence. It could also make him realise: "I'm as good or better than some of these fuckers... I'll be coming on soon"!!

Like others, I thought Warrington was the pick, as he has been a few times.

I don't see any stand-out players who are likely to immediately improve the first team yet. By all means give some youngsters a bit of time to help them develop and maybe give the crowd a buzz... but there doesn't seem to be anyone like Rooney, Barkley or Rodwell tearing things up and demanding first-team consideration.

Michael a very minor point, for your records, Butterfield came on as sub for Warrington (who then got a great ovation BTW) on 85 minutes.

I'm not getting carried away Dave. Like you, I've only watched him a couple of times, but tonight, in the 2nd half he looked really good. He done the simple stuff, but also consistently launched perfectly weighted channel balls into the path and run of the right back. And I appreciate the level we were watching.

I, more than most, preach about giving the youngsters time and space to breathe and develop but, if I was at Finch Farm for a week, I wouldn't have any problems having him at least train on occasion with the first team.

Duncan was in the stands and there are far more qualified people than me at Finch Farm, so let's hope they take care of his development (and others') appropriately.

As Sam said, I don't think he is a "burst on the scenes", "knock down the first-team door" talent but, in a couple of years, he could be.

I think Warrington has all the attributes to push on but, for me, he too often becomes a “second-half player”, coming into his own when space opens up and opponents tire.

I really want him to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and dominate the midfield. He has something different from the other midfielders, but I thought in the first half Onyango outshone him.

There's a great example of his work in the Leeds game, he dispossesses their player in our half, and as the space opens up, he carries the ball forward, helping to set up our last goal.

He doesn't do it often enough for me. His play reminds of Liam Walsh in many ways.

Sam (39) and Danny (41),

You are both correct, there are no standout players who are ready to go straight into the first-team squad but it is nice to see potential in a few of them and hopefully they will push on and become regular players with the first team.

I think young players today are given fantastic wages before they have earned them. Better to give them good decent wages in their early years with the carrot of the vast amounts of money that becomes theirs if they fight and scrap to get to that point. Some young players are close to being millionaires in their early twenties without showing any outstanding ability. Too much, too soon, I'd say.

Interesting you mention that, Dave, amongst other things mentioned in The Athletic a week ago, was Brands's shock at discovering that our U23s had a wage bill comparative to a Championship club.

Now, I just looked up. The Championship is the richest non-top flight league in the world and the 9th richest in Europe in its own right. Like you say, maybe a bit of incentive would be a better approach.

Anyway, let's not have me take it away on one! It was good to see some promise out there last night.

Danny (44),

When Harry Redknapp was manager of Birmingham City, he was bemoaning the fact that some of the players he was trying to get on loan were asking, or their agents were, for wages starting at £10,000 per week. Liam Walsh of Everton was one of those players who went to Birmingham.

Harry got the bullet not long after and Liam's face never fitted the new manager, so he came back to Everton, but not for long. In the January, he was sold to Bristol City for over £2M. I think he had a taste of big wages, for him, and was keen to go.

He might have been better staying and waiting for his chance... or maybe he thought he was better at getting the bird in hand than waiting for the two in the bush.

Thanks for spotting that, Brent @40. I think I've got them right now (up top). No timeline on the club's match centre page.