Everton FC training at Finch Farm, ahead of their UEFA Europa League game against OSC Lille at Goodison Park. The players training under the flood lights at Finch Farm and a full moon(centre).
Everton Under 18s’ eight-game unbeaten run came to a disappointing end on Saturday as they were thrashed 8-0 against Wolves Under 18s at Finch Farm.With players such as Delial Brewster missing from the starting line-up, the Blues struggled to create chances throughout and a re-shuffled defence was pounced upon by the visitors.
The Toffees went in to the game at the top of the Barclays Under 18 Premier League and having taken 22 points from a possible 24 from their last eight games.
Wolverhampton Wanderers on the other hand had only won two of their previous eight games and lay in eighth place in the division.
The visitors started the match in the perfect fashion, with the ever-problematic Niall Ennis latching on to a deep cross and hitting his shot over O’Loughlin.
Everton in fact reacted to go a goal down well, forcing Owen Wheeler in to an important save just before Nicu Carnat put Wolves 2-0 up.
Minutes later, Carnat got his second and his side’s third of the match to make it 3-0, hitting the Blues while their heads had dropped.
From that point, the Blues started to play better football, but Ennis was still causing the defence problems, forcing John Doolan to make an early change and bring on Josef Yarney.
The second period started in much the same fashion as the first, with the visitors scoring an early goal.
Daniel Armstrong cut in from the left hand side and blasted his shot at goal and, whilst Ciaran O’Loughlin did get a hand to it, it found its way in to the bottom corner.
Shortly afterwards, it was 5-0, Connor Ronan this time trying his luck from distance and finding the bottom corner with apparent ease.
This was an uncharacteristic performance from Everton Under 18s, who had previously only lost one match all season.
Nicu Carnat bagged his hat-trick on the hour mark after the Blues were slow to react to a quick Wolves free kick, before Everton started to create some chances of their own.
Nathan Broadhead had a goal-bound header blocked by a defender before Shayne Lavery turned his man on the edge of the box and struck just wide in what was Everton’s best 10-minute period of the match.
However, with just over ten minutes to go Jordan Allen got Wolves’ seventh goal of the match, before Morgan Gibbs-White capped off a brilliant performance from the visitors with their eighth goal.
It could perhaps have been more if O’Loughlin hadn’t produced a big save from Joe Delacoe’s powerful drive, before Wheeler at the other end produced an equally good save to stop Broadhead pulling a goal back for the Blues.
Everton suffered only their second loss in the league this season, and will be hoping for a much better performance when they come up against Liverpool in the derby next week.
Echo
