Season › 2015-16 › News Everton win friendly vs Östersund Peter Jansson and Lyndon Lloyd, , 23 , 25comments | Jump to most recent Everton played a behind-closed-doors friendly at Finch Farm against à–stersund FK from Sweden today, running out 2-1 winners With no game this weekend for the Blues, this was an ideal pre-season encounter for the side from Sweden. Ronald Mukiibi gave à–stersund lead in the first half but Kevin Mirallas equalized for Everton. In the second half à–FK had several opportunities, including a shot off the post by Saman Ghoddos. But Everton finally got the winning goal, Gareth Barry scoring following a corner. A number of senior players were missing on international duty, including Jagielka, Stones, Coleman and Lukaku but Steven Pienaar played the full 90 minutes. Some background on the opposition: à–stersund played last season at the 2nd league level in Sweden. The Swedish league is far far away from top quality and the season has not yet started, the Swedish League starts in the spring and ends in the fall. So the form of à–stersund is definitely not at its best. Reader Comments (25) 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 Michael Kenrick 2 Posted 23/03/2016 at 19:16:03 I found some photos at this link:ÖFK kunde inte stÃ¥ emot – vinst fö Everton med 2-1Must admit I'm having trouble identifying some of our players... I don't think you can go by the normal squad numbers – I'm guessing this was 1-11 with subs.Osman, Mirallas,Kone,Barry,McCarthyLennon, Cleverley... Patrick Murphy 3 Posted 23/03/2016 at 19:16:52 Surely there were more players absent than Lukaku, Jags and Coleman? What about Funes Mori for example or Del Boy? Besides which it was played behind closed doors so it would be part of a training exercise rather than a 'must win' game so the level of the opposition wouldn't be that concerning. Anthony Dwyer 4 Posted 23/03/2016 at 23:14:25 Deulofeu was defo missing, he's away with Spain U21 squad, scoring Messi style goals in training. Check out the links on NewsNow Everton. Joe Duffin 5 Posted 24/03/2016 at 01:20:17 Surely McCarthy away with Ireland as well? Rep of Ireland play on Friday, unless Coleman & McCarthy are not in squad? Pete Cumberlidge 6 Posted 24/03/2016 at 06:42:47 A home win! Ray Robinson 7 Posted 24/03/2016 at 07:14:42 There was no home crowd in attendance to put the players off. Sam Hoare 8 Posted 24/03/2016 at 07:32:41 Did Niasse play? Has a £14m signing ever been so underused while his team is underperforming? Not a great sign. Ian Jones 9 Posted 24/03/2016 at 08:27:23 Hi Sam.If you google 'Niasse on International duty' you will find a link to a Daily Mail article about players away from clubs. I would provide the link but on a train and can't copy and paste!Looks as if Niasse is on Senegal duty. No mention of Gibson so I assume he is at home. Haven't checked whether he was in the friendly game against the Swedes... Arild Andersen 10 Posted 24/03/2016 at 08:47:44 I spend quite a lot of time in Sweden, and wile it's true that the league aren't top level, Östersund is actually an interesting story. I think they have been promoted the last three seasons or something, and have had a remarkable rise to the top flight, where they are about to debut in a week or so. Manager/coach is Graham Potter who I think played for Southampton in the 90s. Their chairman is a very outspoken/noisy local businessman with a bit of ambition, they have loaned the 'keeper Blackman from Chelsea. In the story, Martinez claims that the chairman is a good friend, so maybe we will send some loanees to northern Sweden? Although I would prefer we sent Martinez.http://www.op.se/sport/fotboll/ofk-kunde-inte-sta-emot-vinst-for-Everton-med-2-1 Phil Walling 11 Posted 24/03/2016 at 08:56:03 Sam @8; I think you will find that Niasse has returned home to represent Senagal in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Niger.Given that he's hardly kicked a ball in anger since early December, he must a long way from match fit! Shane Corcoran 12 Posted 24/03/2016 at 09:57:17 Is today the deadline for loans? Gibson's last chance to get out and play before the summer?And to think about the abuse McGeady got for allegedly sitting on his arse and not leaving.That link wouldn't work for me but, as others, I'd assume McCarthy is in Dublin. Christy Ring 13 Posted 24/03/2016 at 10:13:07 I'd bring Pienaar back into the team to play Man Utd. Martinez has to play players in their proper positions. There is no shape to his team. He should play 4-4-2: Robles; Coleman, Jagielka, Funes Mori, Galloway; Lennon, McCarthy, Barkley, Pienaar; Lukaku, Mirallas. Andrew Presly 14 Posted 24/03/2016 at 10:43:45 Arild – I was thinking about worst Swedish players for us recently. Got to be Linderoth hasn't it? I know he has circa 80 caps but that was like having a chartered accountant patrolling centre midfield. Trevor Lynes 15 Posted 24/03/2016 at 11:40:41 Looks like our Niasse is joining the rest of the players on big salaries for doing nothing.Ever since extra subs were allowed, it has been a haven for fringe players and injury-prone non performers like Gibson to get paid big money to drive great cars and get drunk without penalty. Christopher Wallace 16 Posted 24/03/2016 at 12:53:55 Maybe we should play all our home games at Finch Farm. Alan Thompson 17 Posted 24/03/2016 at 14:34:35 Shane (#12); I think the difference in the level of abuse is because Gibson had a history of injury before we signed him. Perhaps we should have done our homework or carried out a more demanding medical. Buyer beware. Ken Svensson 18 Posted 24/03/2016 at 14:47:36 Swedish side Östersund making their first appearance in the highest league this season. Most people predict them to be relegated the same year. I'm not one of them. Probably a mid-tier team from Sweden this season with some great qualities in some of their players. A familiar face is Jamal Blackman, goalkeeper sent on loan from Chelsea to Östersund. Kevin Mirallas scored a quite beautiful freekick against the Swedish side. Highlights from the game can be found here.Cheers. Arild Andersen 19 Posted 24/03/2016 at 15:21:36 Andrew (14): not too many to choose from, so you could be right. I was never impressed by Alexandersson or Blomquist either. Limpar was hot and cold. Were there more? We had that big CB (Johan Hammar) in the academy some years ago, but he never made the first team. I think he plays in the Swedish second tier after a spell with Malmö. There hasn't been many Scandinavian players at Everton at all. A couple of Danes, one good (Gravesen), more bad (Thomsen, Degn, Krøldrup, Jacobsen). One from Norway, Thomas Myhre, who I think did OK, but we haven't been too lucky with our Scandinavians. We were linked with Nordtveit from Borussia Münchengladbach earlier this year, he is out of contract in summer and would be a good signing that could play both CB and DM, but according to Norwegian press it's looks like he's going to West Ham. Terry McLavey 20 Posted 24/03/2016 at 16:49:28 #6 Pete Laughed out loud at your thread. Ironic the two players suspended scored... or is it... SPOOKY! Terry McLavey 21 Posted 24/03/2016 at 17:03:14 Ken (#18), Thanks for the link, although seeing the score and scorer before it happened a bit weird?Everton looked completely bored with the game! Kone managed to miss a header that was almost over the line so no change there! Did anyone see that car transporter on the motorway (or bypass) in the background? That brightened it up for me! Paul Olsen 22 Posted 24/03/2016 at 17:15:24 Uhum, Stefan Rehn..... Minik Hansen 23 Posted 24/03/2016 at 18:14:05 Arild Andersen >> On Scandinavian players, we were also linked with the Danish U21 defender Jannik Vestergaard, which I think would have been a great bit of business.On our players away on international duty, another one forgotten player is Tarashaj, with Switzerland, no mention of him in the OS.. Paul Thompson 24 Posted 24/03/2016 at 18:27:43 Thanks for the link, Ken (#18). On the basis of those highlights, we were lucky to win and gave away the usual goal to a cross and header! Ken Svensson 25 Posted 25/03/2016 at 01:26:56 Paul#18. Well I agree and disagree. I'm from the town of Östersund and Its a city with 44k population. More than satisfied with the result on Östersund's behalf, but with those 7 players in the lineup of Everton, I feel Everton shoulda done better.Cheers, Shane Corcoran 26 Posted 25/03/2016 at 17:53:45 Alan, #17, it doesn't really explain why Gibson hasn't left on loan three months before the Euros start and he hasn't got abuse for it. 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