Young Blues dumped out by very late winner

That's a pity. This competition can really be a springboard for the kids, or the best of those kids, to realise the dream to make it pro. It's the only real win or bust football they get of any status so to bow out to Villa at this stage is regrettable.

I was surprised Sheedy didn't graduate to take the U21s. Unsworth seems to have got that job by default but that's another story.

Anyway Connolly, Walsh, Evans, Dowell & Brewster are the ones to watch from this batch, so I hear.

This was a good game to assess our young Blues as we included Evans, Walsh, Dowell, Connolly and Feeny who've been starring in the U21s this season but they were found wanting tonight. They were up against a very disciplined Villa team who were more dangerous around the box than Everton.

Evans, among many, was off his game and our ball retention, which had been dreadful, improved when he was replaced by Dowell who added maturity to our game and the Irish lad, Lavery put himself about to good effect when he came on.

Sure Brewster hit the woodwork twice but Villa had better chances to score in the first half. The winning goal came from an uncontested header on the edge of the 6 yard box and I don't think we can have any complaints at the result.

We had chances to win, with three good ones early in the second half but squandered each one. Liam Walsh was at the heart of most of Everton's best moves, Michael Donohue was starved of the ball for most of the first half, he switched wings in the second half and had a few good runs.

As the previous writer said there could be no qualms that Villa were the best of the two teams and deserved the victory. The coach by the way, according to the programme is John Doolan.

All the first team players who took the corners against Crystal Palace could learn off Walsh who took the corners tonight, each one hit crisply across the goal. Just needed a touch off an Everton player and the ball was in the net.

A disappointing performance from the young Blues, there didn't appear to be any urgency about winning the game as it drew to an end.

They are all hoping to make a living out of football so it won't do to have a go at them, maybe they will learn from the experience, let's just put it down to an off night.

The no. six for Everton, who went off injured was a young French lad,Beni Baningime, I'd never heard of him before, he was neat and tidy and worked hard, looked disconsolate when he had to go off.

Shame. The U18s have been in top form this season until the last fortnight. The cup competition though has much more kudos and to go out at first hurdle is disappointing.

Bit of a shame this really, the youngsters are in sparkling form so a cup run is always nice to go hand in hand with league form.

Although going out of the cup may strengthen our hand in the league, especially as we're sitting pretty at the top of the pile.

I've never bothered about academy results. These kids are still developing, still growing. Some recently played 4 games in 8 days.

All that matters is their character, improving their technical ability, kicking, tackling and passing with both feet, perfecting their heading skills and learning how to play the various roles. With luck, some will do well.

True Harold, though performing in pressure games is part of that learning experience and it sounds as though a few may have been sub par last night. A cup run would have been nice but hardly the end of the world.

Sam (7) true that Sam, and the pressure is felt more when you play at home, where you are being watched by family and friends plus the home fans, sounds strange, but it is easier to play away where that sort of pressure is off.

As Harold says it is the long term goal that counts, nevertheless it is great for the young lads to go on a good cup run and it keeps their season alive.

An interesting point from last night's game was the programme for the game was printed on the other side of a team sheet from when Everton played Aston Villa in the old First Division in October 1984, the season we won the Championship.

The attendance was only 25,089. We won 2-1 with goals from Sharp and Heath who also missed a penalty, so last night's match at least brought back some happy memories.

These pesky Rushians are everywhere

Agree Sam, but Sheedy and Unsy were worried about a few of them being knackered and it sounds as if they were.

Dave (#9),

I always refer to October 1984 as Golden October: Man Utd twice put to the sword home in the league and away in the League Cup, the other lot beaten on their own midden, beating Sheff Utd 4-0 and progress in European Cup-Winners Cup thanks to beating University College Dublin and Bratislava.

The only blot on the landscape was a 1-0 defeat at Highbury. Wonderful time to be an Evertonian. Seven wins in eight games, if only we could achieve half of that these days.