Everton analysis of Isaac Heath after the first pre-season friendly of the summer at Accrington Stanley
ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley has covered Everton and Liverpool both in the Premier League and abroad since 2005. He cut his teeth in professional sports journalism at the Ellesmere Port Pioneer and then the Welsh edition of the Daily Post, where he also covered Manchester United. Prior to that he worked on the student newspaper Pluto at the University of Central Lancashire, a role in which he first encountered David Moyes. Chris is well-known for his sartorial elegance and the aforementioned Scottish manager once enquired of him at a press conference: "Is that your dad's suit you've got on?" while the tradition continued in 2023 with new Blues boss Sean Dyche complimenting him on his smart appearance.
Back in the 1980s, a couple of youthful fans of Everton’s neighbours Liverpool mocked Accrington Stanley’s football prowess in a famous television milk advert but as a liquid of another sort – rain – lashed down in abundance at the Wham Stadium, it was one of the Blues’ youngsters, Under-21 player of the year Isaac Heath who spared the visitors’ blushes.
While Harrison Armstrong will rightly take the lion’s share of the plaudits from this contest when it comes to David Moyes’ men, as Nick Cox looks to forge a pathway for Everton’s in-house talent, substitute Isaac Heath showed there is still some additional talent knocking at the door, as well as the precocious West Derby teenager.
In what was a very wet corner of Lancashire on this night, Leeds-born Heath, the club’s Under-21s player of the season last term showed that he’s got more in his locker than mere Yorkshire grit.
Brought on just after the hour mark and deployed on the left wing – where the Blues, who have been linked with Manchester City’s out-of-favour £100million man Jack Grealish this summer – already have a surfeit of natural options (unlike the threadbare opposite flank) in Dwight McNeil, Charly Alcaraz, and 2024/25’s magic man Iliman Ndiaye, who was not involved here, Heath started asking questions of Accrington’s defenders just at the time when the contest threatened to run away from the visitors.
Indeed, it was his purposeful run than earned the penalty for Beto to convert and ensure a share of the spoils.
After snapping up goalkeeper Mark Travers this week from Bournemouth, Moyes says he still wants to make another four-to-six signings, but perhaps Heath’s showing might allow him to be a little more patient as he works on this summer’s essential major rebuild?