Season › 2014-15 › News U21s held in International Cup opener , 25 November, 15comments | Jump to most recent Everton's Academy began their participation in the new U21s Premier League International Cup tournament with a 1-1 draw with Celtic this evening thanks to Courtney Duffus's late equaliser. Arouna Kone played the first 45 minutes for the Blues but they fell behind to Filip Twardzik's goal after 27 minutes. Everton pressed for an equaliser in the second half, with Duffus and Conor McAleny returning to action after a loan spell and injury respectively and it was the former who converted Gethin Jones's cross with 10 minutes to go. Everton U21s: Griffiths; Jones, Kenny (c), Pennington, Galloway; Walsh, Williams, McAleny (65' Henen); Long (65' Duffus), Grant, Kone (45' Dowell).Subs Not Used: Hewelt, Connolly Article continues below video content The four-group tournament, which kicked off last month when West Ham faced Athletic Bilbao at Upton Park, also features Chelsea, Fulham, Leicester City, Manchester City, Norwich City, and Sunderland as the other English participants. They are joined by Athletic Bilbao, Benfica, Borussia Monchengladbach, Glasgow Celtic, Schalke 04, Porto, PSV Eindhoven, and Villarreal as the eight foreign teams in the competition. The group matches will be staged until 31 January 2015 with the winners and runners-up from each group progressing to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, all to be played as single-leg ties. All games will be taking place in England. Reader Comments (15) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Sam Hoare 1 Posted 25/11/2014 at 16:26:33 Sounds like a close approximation of real match experience than the normal U21 league and good to play some European teams. Hopefully the lads do well and learn at the same time. Michael Kenrick 2 Posted 25/11/2014 at 16:32:47 You're right, Sam, I'm sure that's the intention of this new competition. What amazes me is that they have only played SIX games so far this season in the U21 league. And this will be their first game in November!!!Given the points raised on the other thread about the dearth of young talent coming through and them not getting enough games, it's a pity this is coming so close to the Wolfsburg fixture. I doubt that many of the youngsters will be involved in both matches although sitting on the bench is an option, I guess. They've tried numerous fixes over the years to up the standard of the second tier... let's hope this one has a beneficial influence. Peter Barnes 3 Posted 25/11/2014 at 16:59:03 Anyone know which stands are open tonight? Does a season ticket get you anywhere or do you have to go to your regular area? Patrick Murphy 5 Posted 25/11/2014 at 18:30:32 Grand Old Team poster thinks that Kone will get a run-out tonight any truth in that rumour? Sam Hoare 6 Posted 25/11/2014 at 18:34:22 Yup. Kone starts. Alongside Chris Long and Conor McAleny. Mike Oates 7 Posted 25/11/2014 at 18:48:47 No Ledson, Browning, or Garbutt — they must be going to Wolfsburg. Sam Hoare 8 Posted 25/11/2014 at 19:46:33 1-0 down at HT in a game of few chances apparently. Mike Oates 9 Posted 25/11/2014 at 20:21:52 Kone only lasted 45mins Charles Cook 10 Posted 25/11/2014 at 20:43:19 I wonder if he only lasted 45 mins or if that was the plan.Anyone got any updates on the match itself? Sam Hoare 12 Posted 26/11/2014 at 00:05:01 Finished 1-1. Courtney Duffus getting the equaliser. Anyone watch it? Colin Glassar 13 Posted 26/11/2014 at 00:28:49 Whoo hoo — Kone is alive!! Harold Matthews 14 Posted 26/11/2014 at 01:35:04 Delighted Kone got 45 minutes. Joe O'Brien 15 Posted 26/11/2014 at 01:52:31 Great that Kone played. I really was convinced that he'd end up retiring with that knee injury. He could be a very important player for us for the busy remaining season. We need someone to share the load with Rom. Craig Fletcher 16 Posted 26/11/2014 at 02:01:24 I’m not going to get too hopeful with Kone just yet, there have been a couple of false starts with him already this season (he had played a closed-door game a couple of months ago as well, I recall).Nonetheless, great news and I hope it goes well for the lad this time. Steve Jenkins 17 Posted 26/11/2014 at 10:24:12 15 Agree – great to see & could be an important player.16 Also agree too soon to be getting excited, hopefully the start towards building fitness towards first team. Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads © ToffeeWeb