It’s a sign of the progress that Malik Olayiwola has made for the Everton Under 21s when his coach says he “expects him to score” as he indeed did against Lower Breck last week in the Liverpool Senior Cup. The lead photo however, featuring Olayiwola challenging Liverpool’s Rio Ngumoha, also perhaps highlights a bit of an issue for Everton.
Whilst Olayiwola has immense talent at this level he seems to be nowhere near the Blues first team whereas Ngumoha, just 4 months older, has made 11 senior appearances for the Reds, scoring one goal. They play in similar positions in a pretty similar style, to be honest, there’s little between them in ability, just opportunity.
The line up for the Liverpool Senior Cup tie was as below with Bradley Moonan’s return to action at centre back forcing Aled Thomas wide to his secondary position of left back.
Defending their title as holders of the Liverpool Senior Cup, the Blues actually fell behind in the 39th minute as Lower Breck’s Cherera had the beating of Blues’ left back Thomas and cut inside to steer beyond ‘keeper Lukjanciks. 0-1.
That’s the way the scoreline stayed until as late as 90+2 minutes when Olayiwola played a neat one-two with Kingsford Boakye and cut inside before rifling home an excellent shot to level the scores, 1-1. The pair celebrated the goal below.
The late show continued as in the 90+5th minute a long ball forward by Boakye saw Braiden Graham comfortably beat the offside and the home goalkeeper made a hash of his attempted fly-kick away and the young Northern Irishman rolled the ball home for 2-1.
Meanwhile, the Under 18s travelled to East Lancashire to face Burnley on Saturday morning. They lined up as below with Melvin Matos (pictured) taking the armband:
The Toffees got off to a bright start with a lovely controlled left foot volley by 16 year old Jake Doughty from Harvey Billington’s measured left wing cross, see below:
Ray Robert made it 2-0 just 7 minutes later and another young Northern Irishman, 17 year old Freddie Murdock, made it 3-0 after 21 minutes.
After 56 minutes, the three points were definitely coming back to Finch Farm as a smart dribble by Ray Robert saw Kean Wren’s shot blocked, The reprieve was only temporary however as Jonathan Nsangou reacted smartly to slide home a finish for 4-0 (see below):
The most spectacular of the lot came with just a minute of the game remaining when a superb Charlie Stewart left wing cross was met by an acrobatic diving header (see below) from Robert to make it a 5-0 rout
Next up is an U21 game away to Reading on Monday night then, of course, the much-awaited quarter final of the FA Youth Cup against Manchester City on Friday 13th.
In looking ahead to that tie, it will be undoubtedly a tough one as City have an excellent U18 team but the Blues have also been in fine form themselves at U18 level. It’s worth noting that none of the goalscorers against Burnley have been first choices for the Youth team this campaign so the strength in depth is clearly there. The U18s regulars will be boosted by the inclusion of U21 players Braiden Graham, Ceiran Loney, Malik Olayiwola, Demi Akarakiri and goalkeeper Douglass Lukjanciks. Fingers crossed!