Season › 2012-13 › News

Young Blues advance in FA Youth Cup

Lyndon Lloyd , 10 December, 2comments  |  Jump to most recent
Everton are through to the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup after a 2-0 win at Southampton thanks to goals by George Waring and Conor Grant.

The victory was marred slightly by a late injury to goalkeeper Matiusz Taudul but Kevin Sheedy's young Blues held on through six minutes of injury time to advance.

Match Report

A very cold night down on the south coast, the home side got the contest underway with the early exchanges between the two sides settling down.

Matthew Kennedy, who has been in impressive form for the U21s, forced the first save of the game which was tipped over. But inside 60 seconds the Toffees were ahead with a goal from George Waring. It was good work from Conor Grant that set Waring through to hit the target.

Saints turned up the heat, searching for an equaliser, going close on 20 minutes as a couple of attempts from free kicks could not break down the Everton defence until a loose ball broke and a defender´s effort was cleared only for another shot to be blazed high over the Everton bar.

Mateusz Taudul showed some brave goalkeeping having to be alert to deny The Saints then responding minutes later saving a very good attempt from the edge of the area.

After half-time, the Southampton keeper needed lengthy treatment. Once the game got flowing again it was the Saints who thought they had got even after a free-kick rebounded out and a shot was touched home but the celebrations were short lived as the linesman's flag had been raised.

After surviving a spell of Saints pressure, the Blues doubled their advantage through Conor Grant. It was Kennedy that made the cross for Gethin Jones to head down for Conor Grant to finish inside the 6 yard box with 30 minutes remaining.

Saints introduced some fresh faces but Everton's defenders were showing some quality but, with 15 minutes left of the contest, Everton lost keeper Taudul through an injury giving an opportunity to Russell Griffiths.

The Saints looked for a way back with a header which rose over the frame of the goal then Griffiths was tested with a low shot from 20 yards. Kennedy had the last word for the visitors with a shot from the edge of the box that wasn´t too far away.

Everton: Taudul (75' Griffiths), Pennington, Touray, Joe Kenny, Langton, Molyneux (C), Jones, Ledson, Waring (85' Dyson),Grant (90' Charsley), Kennedy.
Unused Subs: Green, McLaughlin.

Quotes or other material sourced from Grand Old Team

Reader Comments (2)

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Mike Oates
1 Posted 11/12/2012 at 09:25:45
I was at the game at St Mary's last night and was hoping to see what the future held fo Everton with the likes of Matthew Kennedy, George Green and Conor Grant. Kennedy and Grant played, Green was an unused substitute.

Two completely contrasting teams, Everton were a big physical team with something like 3 to 4 six-footers playing whilst Southampton had one player of that size.

Everton were solid, held their shape, strong in the tackle, playing on the counter-attack, and played a 4-5-1 formation with George Waring (about 6ft 3in, man mountain) up alone. Southampton were a physically small team, relied on 2 to 3 good little quick players, comfortable on the ball, neat quick interchange movements but had no physicality upfront at all, which at the end of the night was their undoing.

For Everton, I thought Conor Grant was excellent: good footballer cultured left footer – he was a 5ft 10in Jack Wilshere. Matthew Kennedy is obviously using Mirallas as a role model – he played wide left, cut in a lot and had 2 or 3 good attempts on goal. His only problem was that he lost the ball on a quite a number of occasions trying to do too much, and a couple led to good Southampton attacks.

Our goalkeeper Taudul looked very good indeed with a couple of excellent saves, took crosses all night, and was very brave on one occasion, blocking a point-blank shot, injuring himself in the process. Right back Pennington, two defensive central midfielders Molyneux and Ledson all acquitted themselves well.

The only slight downer was Langton at centre half, who reminded me of Duffy: strong tackler, great in the air but his passing was hopeless. (Duncan Ferguson was cringing time and time again on the sidelines when Langton tried any pass over 20 yards...)

We just about deserved the win as we were the better team even though Southampton had the more possesion. A good result as this Southampton team won their Elite group U-18 league with the likes of Man Utd and Spurs also in that group.

It was good to see Duncan Ferguson, Kevin Sheedy, Davie Weir, Alan Stubbs and Taff Holden all there at the game (even though the Southampton fans next to me were calling him Darren Ferguson!!). Looked about just over a couple of thousand watching on a cold and bitter night with what must have been about 100 or 200 Evertonians also there, in full voice, which tickled my Southampton mates.

Sam Hoare
2 Posted 11/12/2012 at 10:00:57
Thanks for the details Mike, funny to think that we ahd such a physical team when for the first time in ages our first team with some notable exceptions is a smaller footballing team.

I wonder why Green wasn't playing, thought he had been one of the standouts this season for the youth team.

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