Unusually, the Everton Under-21s hosted their lowly-placed East Lancashire rivals Burnley on a Monday afternoon at a cold and breezy Finch Farm. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 4pm kick off on a Monday and frankly, if this is what they look like, then I hope I never see another one!
The match, streamed live to Evertonians, began poorly and frankly didn’t really get better in an error-strewn first half. Indeed, the Blues were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch and not to have conceded a fairly stonewall penalty. The Toffees lined up as per the picture below and not as you might imagine by the traditional use of shirt numbers. A definite 4-3-3 with in-form Braiden Graham starting in the centre of a front 3 flanked by the much bigger Ebere wearing #9 but on the left wing and the diminutive Kingsford Boakye on the right. Douglass Lukjanciks, as widely predicted, took over in goal following the recent loan departure of regular stopper, George Pickford.
The opening 20 minutes was only notable for a half-hearted penalty claim by Everton. The rejection of that claim saw an unwise decision by midfielder Francis Gomez to exact some retribution and clatter a Burnley player under the nose of the referee. He rightly receive a yellow card.
There were fleeting signs of improvement with two moves involving Boakye, Graham and the tireless Callum Bates. The second of those passages saw a snapshot by Graham fly narrowly wide.
Just 16 minutes after his first yellow card, Gomez quite recklessly launched into a strong mis-timed tackle near the touchline that was a nailed-on booking. Somehow the referee chose to let him away without a further card! Paul Tait’s response was immediate as Malik Olayiwola came on as substitute for the out-of-control Gambian international.
If that was a let-off, there was a further escape as, in the 40th minute, Reece Welch clearly and obviously caught a Burnley attacker in the penalty area…. no spot-kick given.
The dire first half came to a conclusion with a 0-0 scoreline, the Blues thankful for some very lenient refereeing and one good save from Lukjanciks. 0-0.
The Blues kept the same players that ended the half but began brighter and some good work by Ebere saw him burst forward and feed **Graham**. The marksman made a yard of space for himself and, from 12 yards, he fired beyond the ‘keeper’s shoulder, 1-0. That’s his 13th goal for the Under 21s this season.
It breathed life into the Toffees and 6 minutes later, Graham ran from his own half towards a retreating defence and shot a yard wide.
There was not long to wait as, in the 64th minute, Bates won the ball in midfield and set up **Kingsford Boakye** to drive home, 2-0 and breathing space or so we thought!
Goalscorer Braiden Graham made a clumsy tackle in his own penalty area and the spot-kick was converted by McMahon-Brown to make the scoreline 2-1.
As the match was coming to an end, the referee suffered a groin injury after 87 minutes. In the howling wind and freezing rain it took 5 minutes for the 4th official to tog up with all the electric and communications equipment that they need to wear these days! The respective benches including one-time Blues’ free-kick coach, Charlie Adam, could be heard imploring the officials to simply finish the match in the old-fashioned way minus all the gear but there are probably rules against such common-sense!
Burnley missed a glorious chance in the 90+5 minute as McMahon-Brown somehow placed a free header a yard wide but it was undoubtedly the Clarets looking the most dangerous as the game reached conclusion.
It was probably deserved on the balance overall when Burnley equalised after 90+8 minutes as the Blues defence chaotically failed to clear a cross and it was somehow level at 2-2.
Everton had only themselves to blame for failing to take all three points. Callum Bates and Odin Samuels-Smith played excellently throughout but a few others had an afternoon to forget. Unbelievably, having gone all season without drawing a game, Paul Tait’s team have now drawn the last two.
Next up is another home game against Sunderland on Friday February 20th, hopefully they can get back on track.