Everton Under-18s got back to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Middlesbrough at Finch Farm on Saturday afternoon.A penalty from Nathan Broadhead and goals from Jack Bainbridge and Shayne Lavery saw the young Blues take a well-deserved 3-0 lead into the break.
And despite a late second-half goal from Boro forward Mitchell Curry and the red card shown to Broadhead, John Ebbrell’s side held out for their first win in five league games.
In bitterly cold conditions, Everton immediately put Middlesbrough on the back foot and could have taken the lead as early as the eighth minute.
Michael Donohue found Lavery with a clever chipped through ball but the striker’s effort was saved by the keeper.
However, it wasn’t long before the young Blues were ahead and it was Lavery who was involved once again.
The youngster capitalised on a defensive mix up in the Boro backline and raced into the box before being brought down by the onrushing keeper Tom Dawson.
Referee Michael Hooper pointed straight to the spot and forward Broadhead confidently fired his spot-kick into the top corner to give his side a much-deserved lead.
That advantage was then doubled just moments later when Donohue’s corner eluded everyone in the box but defender Bainbridge was alert to prod home at the back post.
Despite racing into an early lead, Everton didn’t sit back and continued to apply pressure on their Tyneside opponents.
And with five minutes remaining of the opening half they extended their lead following good work from Broadhead.
The forward capitalised on a misplaced pass before firing a fierce effort at Dawson that only he could palm into the path of Lavery who calmly netted the rebound.
Middlesbrough emerged from the second-half looking to get an early way back into the game but the young Blues did well to restrict the visitors to very few clear cut chances.
Lee Hetherington had an opportunity deep into the second half but his low strike was saved well by the legs of Blues keeper Ciaran O’Loughlin.
Despite the visitors dominating large periods of the second half, Everton still had their three-goal advantage heading into the latter stages but that was to be tested when Broadhead was shown a straight red card with11 minutes remaining.
And Middlesbrough made that extra-man count when Curry, unmarked in the box, headed past O’Loughlin to make it a nervous end to the game for the Blues.
But it proved to be just a mere consolation as the Toffees held out for victory which lifted them above Liverpool and up to second in the league standings.
Speaking after the game, Academy coach John Ebbrell was delighted to see his side get back to winning ways and has challenged his players to win their remaining league games.
“First and foremost we wanted to win,” Ebbrell told evertonfc.com. “We played last week and lost and we didn’t want to keep that habit going, we wanted to get out of this run quite quickly.”
“It was a great performance first half, we held on a little bit at times in the second half but it was a good win.
“We’ve got four league games now and the challenge is there to win them all. This is what we are about; we want to develop players with that winning mentality.
“The pleasing thing today was that this was the first game in terms of that five game run that we desperately wanted to win.
“We’ve got that so I’d like to think that we can possibility have a look at winning those next four games and that is the challenge for the players.”
Everton U18s starting XI: O’Loughlin, Yates, Myers, Baningime, Bainbridge, Yarney, Donohue, Kiersey, Lavery, Broadhead, Kinsella.
Everton U18s substitutes: Pierce, Harrington, Bramall, Lees, Mellen.
Middlesbrough U18s starting XI: Dawson, Convery, Coulson, Tavernier, Cook, McGoldrick, Wilson, Pattison, Curry, Hetherington, Reading.
Middlesbrough U18s substitutes: Renton, Holdsworth, Hegarty, O’Neil, Pears.
