Everton Under-18s secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Blackburn Rovers to maintain the pressure on league leaders Manchester City.
Antony Evans opened the scoring inside 60 seconds at Finch Farm, before Nathan Broadhead doubled the advantage from the penalty spot after Shayne Lavery had been brought down in the box.
Blackburn scored just before the half-time interval through Lewis Mansell but the young Blues regained their two-goal lead minutes after the restart as Broadhead grabbed his second of the game.
Mason Fawns pulled one back almost immediately with a superb strike from outside the box but the Toffees managed to hold out to keep themselves just two points behind leaders City with one game remaining.
Everton headed into the game full of confidence following their 8-0 victory away at Newcastle United last weekend and that showed when they went ahead within the first minute.
Nathan Holland pressured Rovers into a mistake before finding Evans and the striker made no mistake with his finish as he fired past Andrew Fisher.
The hosts began to dictate proceedings following the early goal and their dominance was merited on the half hour mark.
Broadhead, playing his first game since signing his first professional contract with the Club, found Lavery and the striker raced into the box before being brought down by the Rovers defender.
The referee awarded the Blues a penalty and Broadhead stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way and double his side’s lead.
Everton seemed in full control of the game but with the break approaching the visitors pulled one back against the run of play.
Mansell took aim from outside the box and his effort struck the underside of the crossbar and the referee adjudged the ball to have crossed the line.
The Blues started the brighter of the two sides in the second half and regained their two-goal advantage on 51 minutes with an impressive team goal.
Following a fine passing move, midfielder Jack Kiersey crossed for Broadhead at the back post and the Wales Under-19 international executed the perfect volley to net his 11th goal of the campaign.
But yet again, the visitors got themselves back into the contest almost immediately and it was another goal of the highest quality as substitute Fawns fired past Ciaran O’Loughlin from 25-yards out.
John Ebbrell’s side had to ride out some late pressure but the young Blues managed to see the game out to keep up the challenge on Manchester City in pursuit of the Northern section of the Under-18s Premier League.
Speaking after the game, skipper Nathan Holland believes his teammates are hitting form at the perfect time as the Blues head into the business end of the campaign.
“We are in very good form at the moment, we are feeling very confident and it was another great win today,” Holland told evertonfc.com.
“We’ve got to get the win against Derby County next week and hope that City will lose. and hopefully
“But if they don’t, it doesn’t matter, we are still going to make the play-offs and we’ll go into those games full of confidence.”
Everton U18s: O’Loughlin, Yates, Myers, Harrington, Feeney, Yarney, Broadhead, Kiersey, Lavery, Evans, Holland (c).
Everton substitutes: Pierce, Morris, Lees, Baningime, Denny.
Blackburn U18s: Fisher, Travis, Williams, Hardcastle, Doyle, Magloire, Pemberton, Rankin-Costello, Mansell, Mols, Howarth.
Blackburn substitutes: Makinson, Ashcroft, Fawns, Steer.
