Season › 2016-17 › News U23s bow out of Premier League International Cup Lyndon Lloyd Wednesday, 21 December, 2016 10comments | Jump to most recent Everton's Under-23s had a must-win encounter with Athletic Bilbao this evening but had their quarter final hopes dashed by a 2-1 defeat. David Unsworth's men sat third in the group coming into the evening and had to take all three points to stand a chance of progressing to the last eight. They made the perfect start, going ahead in the ninth minute through Callum Connolly's strike but spurned an opportunity to make it 2-0 when Harry Charsley was fouled in the box. Jonjoe Kenny's penalty was saved to keep the score at 1-0 and the visitors capitalised, levelling the scores shortly before the break through Inigo Cordoba. Everton pushed for a winner in the second half but saw their chances of progressing ended when Bilbao took the lead inside the last ten minutes, Unai Nunez converting to make it 2-1. Everton U23: Renshaw, Kenny, Jones, Browning, Connolly, Davies, Grant (82' Evans), Dyson (60' Henen), Dowell, Charsley, Niasse (60' C Duffus). Subs not Used: Hunt, Feeney, Baningime, Robinson. Reader Comments (10) 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 Barry Pearce 1 Posted 21/12/2016 at 19:26:13 No Liam Walsh again, does anyone know the extent of the lads injury. Hope the young'ens can progress tonight great start. COYB. John Graham 2 Posted 21/12/2016 at 20:02:11 Strong squad apart from Calvert-Lewin who looks like he has made the move up.Think these are the games they need to shine in to get people to take notice.Good luck, lads. Barry Pearce 3 Posted 21/12/2016 at 21:31:45 Not to be, unfortunately. Ian McDowell 4 Posted 21/12/2016 at 21:39:49 I seriously doubt anyone of them will ever be a regular for the first team anyway. U23 football is a complete joke in England and doesn't offer anything like the competition needed for players to make the step up. Liam Reilly 5 Posted 21/12/2016 at 22:30:52 Wow Ian, what's Christmas like at yours?I'm of the opinion that there's a few in the U23s that have the potential to step up: Davies, Browning, Walsh, Dowell and Kenny. If just two of those make it, that's a good return. John Crawley 6 Posted 21/12/2016 at 23:19:06 Ian – Unsworth clearly disagrees with you, as do I. Kieran Kinsella 7 Posted 22/12/2016 at 03:26:12 Henen still can't get a game, huh? Ian McDowell 8 Posted 22/12/2016 at 08:57:04 Liam & John. Of course a few of the players have the potential to step up. The point I was trying to make was that its a commonly accepted problem, that we lose far to many players between the ages of 19-23. Not just Everton but across all Premier League clubs. Listening to TalkSport and 5Live, most of the ex-pros and coaches of youth football all agree it needs changing. Its the reason why so many Premier League clubs where all in favour of a "B" team in the lower leagues, to give their young players a better chance of developing by playing more competitive football every week. Dave Abrahams 9 Posted 22/12/2016 at 09:09:17 Barry (#1), I mentioned Walsh's injury a couple of weeks ago and there is still no mention of the extent of the injury, not a dickie bird. If they are not in the first team squad, they do not exist. Liam Reilly 10 Posted 22/12/2016 at 14:03:00 I agree, Ian.The unsettling truth is that all academies stock pile their 'youth' teams with average players who are there only to make up the numbers for the very few who are deemed to be gifted and may make the grade. The 'star' players need these other players to learn the game and develop their skills. This unfortunately leads to the dreams of many a youngster on the scrap heap believing that they missed their calling when the reality is that they never stood much of a chance in the first place. 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