West Ham United 2-1 Everton u23

David Unsworth vowed his Everton Under-23s will move on quickly to Saturday’s “massive” Premier League Cup semi-final after ending their title-winning league campaign with a 2-1 loss at West Ham United.

Having already wrapped up the Premier League 2 crown earlier this month thanks to a 1-0 success against Brighton at Goodison, the young Blues went down at the London Stadium on Monday night despite a late Fraser Hornby goal.

After the loss, boss Unsworth insisted his team’s focus will now be on this weekend’s trip to Swansea City as Everton bid for more silverware with a last-four clash in south Wales (midday kick-off).

“I’m always disappointed to lose a game but these boys have ranked up that many credits with me this season that we’ll dismiss it very quickly and move on to a massive game at the weekend,” he said. “If I’m being honest, it was something I thought may happen and we spoke about it before the game. There was nothing riding on the match and the lads were perhaps thinking about Saturday.”

Everton were below par and Mateusz Hewelt saved to deny Grady Diangana, while a Dan Kemp shot was deflected narrowly wide before the hosts took the lead in the 25th minute.

Former Everton Academy player Nathan Holland crossed from the left and the lively Diangana prodded the ball home from close range.

Moments later, Hornby struck a wonderful free-kick from 30 yards that needed a fine save from Nathan Trott but the visitors were soon on the backfoot again.

West Ham almost scored a second when Morgan Feeney misplaced a back pass to Hewelt and the keeper's stretched clearance fell to Holland. The winger’s shot was then well saved.

Hewelt was well-placed to smother a close-range header from Carlos Sanchez before the break but the Hammers doubled their lead on the hour when Ben Johnson drilled a low shot into the bottom corner of the net from 20 yards.

From then on, Everton gave a better account of themselves but they didn’t pull a goal back until nine minutes from time when Lewis Gibson headed a corner across the goal and Hornby lashed the ball past the keeper.

It was too little too late on the night, but the Blues can look back on their league campaign with immense pride and satisfaction.

“That’s what I said to the players after the game,” added Unsworth. “We don’t like losing but if they are due a bad game, I’d rather it was tonight than Saturday.”

Everton FC