David Unsworth Praises Debutant Morgan Feeney

David Unsworth praised Under-21s debutant Morgan Feeney following the 8-0 demolition of Widnes at the Select Security Stadium.

The young Blues reached the semi-finals of the Liverpool Senior Cup courtesy of goals from Sam Byrne, Antony Evans, Conor McAleny, Callum Connolly (2) and a second half hat-trick from Calum Dyson.

And manager Unsworth reserved praise for 16-year-old centre-back Feeney, who joined the Club’s Academy aged seven, for an assured performance after impressing for the Under-18s in the early stages of the campaign.

“Morgan has been terrific since he came in in the summer as a first year scholar,” he told evertonfc.com. “He has got better and better with the Under-18s team as the season has gone on and it was nice to give him his Under-21 debut tonight.

“The lads gave him a round of applause at the end which was lovely because he is a smashing kid and we have high hopes for him.

“The encouragement he got from the other lads tonight gave him confidence, but he was playing on merit because he has been terrific all season.

“It’s not a case of just throwing someone in - it’s a case of rewarding a player for performing on a consistent basis at a younger level. The ultimate goal is obviously to get players into the first team, but giving younger players a chance goes for the Under-18s coming up to the Under-21s as well.”

Unsworth highlighted his side’s professional attitude as the key to an impressive performance.

The former Toffees defender revealed his players had been training on an artificial in the build-up to the cup tie - and says he was delighted with the manner in which the gameplan was executed on the night.

“It was all about the players’ attitude tonight,” he added. “We have trained on this pitch before the game and we’d been training on the plastic pitch at Finch Farm all week, so we knew we had to play in a certain way.

“We wanted to play into feet, move it quickly with one or two touches and the lads were absolutely terrific in their application to do that. It was nice to see us apply what we have been working on in training and I am very proud of them.

“We’ve spoken about the [Merseyside mini] derby already and this was preparation for us tonight - now all the build-up is about Sunday.”