B Team boss Andy Taylor admitted too many of the Whites let the occasion pass them by as Everton secured their first home win at their new stadium, _writes Pete Oliver_.
A goal five minutes from the end of a match curtailed to allow a practice evacuation of the 25,000 crowd from substitute Kingsford Boakye decided the second fixture to be played at the Toffees’ palatial new home.
The near 53,000-capacity Everton Stadium will be a striking addition to the Premier League roster next season but as the second guests invited to play there in a test event, Wanderers didn’t really do the occasion justice [in a 1-0 defeat.](https://www.bwfc.co.uk/news/b-team-friendly-everton-u21s-1-wanderers-b-0)
“It’s a fantastic stadium, with a good crowd, particularly for the younger players,” said Taylor, who led a side containing a number of senior players watched by first-team boss Steven Schumacher.
“It's a bigger crowd than they’ve probably ever played in front of and possibly ever will play in front of, so it was a great experience for them in terms of that.
“So, in terms of an experience and a spectacle, brilliant. We're really chuffed to have been invited down to play and take part in the game but in terms of the game, I just felt like it was an opportunity that sort of passed us by, really.
“We didn't make the most of the experience and play with enough tempo, enough energy and enough enthusiasm. I understand it's a friendly and I understand there's not three points at stake but we needed more of that.
“It's a game of football and you want to go and win, you want to go and compete and you want to go and get the better of your direct opponent. It was a bit bitter-sweet, really, if I'm honest.”
Despite the performance, there were plus-points in the shape of game time for some of Wanderers’ senior men returning from injury as Kyle Dempsey, Ricardo Almeida Santos and Kion Etete all got through 45 minutes on the comeback trail.
At the other end of the experience, scale the Whites introduced three youth-team players from the bench and young goalkeeper Luke Hutchinson had an afternoon to remember during the 65 minutes of action.
“He did really well,” added Taylor. “Once he settled down his distribution was really good, he was finding spare men, dropping things over the press, and made a couple of really good saves.
“It was brilliant to get some of the youth players on and I’m really pleased I got the opportunity to do that and to get them a little taste of it was really good.
“I'm grateful that we were able to do that for them and it will stick with them. There’s just a bit of an underlying tone of disappointment and it just feels like a bit of an anti-climax.”