Everton U21s hold out for a great win over Morecambe in Papa John's Trophy

I had a quick look at the rules for “ invited clubs “ i.e us, and could only find this from last season : 7.8.1 at least six of the starting eleven players named on the Team Sheet are players who were aged under 21 as at the 30th June in the year in which the Season concerned commenced;

Essentially then we could select from all our recent U23s players, and also include Gordon and Branthwaite if we want to give them a run out and strengthen the team. That would be a good option, show we are taking the competition seriously while also resting some players with a large number of games coming up.

And good news:

Official Members can watch Everton's Papa John's trophy opener against Morecambe on Tuesday night (7pm BST) live on evertonfc.com!

The competition sees David Unsworth's team test themselves against senior opposition and the young Blues will kick off their campaign by taking on the League One Shrimps at Mazuma Stadium.

Official Members can view our live Morecambe v Everton stream here!

Line up tonight:

Leban Mills Astley Campbell Welch Anderson Whitaker Price Butterfield Cannon Dobbin

Subs: Warrington Hunt Kristiensen McAllister Barrett Hughes Hagan

Wish I could be there. Morecambe is one of my favourite places in the world, for so many reasons.

Haha Squad numbers being used, and 64 is…

Decent start from us, playing okay.

More space than U23s games; 0-0 after 12 minutes.

Here's the link to the game.

Morecambe v Everton

Available to season ticket holders and those who have coughed up £35 for online membership.

0-0 at half time. Not a great game but actually a better performance I thought than first half against Derby in last game. A more attacking formation too, switching to three up front at times. Holding their own against a League 1 side.

If Dobbin gets his act together second half, we're in with a good chance. Very quiet first half from him.

Brent, I think last game and this, Dobbin has been outshone by Whitaker, not the same pace as Dobbin but contributes more.

Yes, Phill. I like Whittaker. I think he likes playing in that area just off Dobbin. Very mobile.

More than holding our own.

Our defending has been superb, clearing out everything played into our area.

Dobbin's now off without ever getting into the game.

Stan Mills again impressing.

Get in. McAllister. Good turn!

Cracking goal. Showing the benefit of taking a shot early. Keeper never moved.

He scores important goals does McAllister, a good substitution.

Phill,

64 = Reece Welch, per the line-ups on EFC Match centre.

A few changes there... Tom Cannon now 47 and not 45?

Very few of these numbers reflected in the squad pages at efc.com... why should I even expect that they would be?

Have you seen anywhere else listing squad numbers with names for these younger players? Maybe they should use them in PL2 games...

Michael, just a joke from me, I know the players and the shape of where they are playing, I can't actually pick out the numbers at times!

Interesting discussion re first team game and a back 3, with a lot of sentiment against it. But our U23s (U21s tonight) generally play a back 3. Effectively.

Against Chorley, I commented we looked like boys against men. Tonight it was (young) men against men.

Top, top performance tonight.

Literally boys against men and Morecambe was dishing it out. The ref was Atkinson-like, not so much as speaking to the offender for some nasty late challenges.

The Blues didn't flinch or back down. Tigers every one of them.

Impressive.

Phill, I struggled to pick out who was who in the last match against Derby, and kept referring to the names and numbers on the iPad. Is there any reason they can't wear shirts with their names on the back?

McAllister definitely has an eye for goal, he has a very powerful shot blocked last week that was goal-bound not long after he came on.

Brent, I hate our first team playing with a back 3 but we were very effective tonight, Astley and Anderson in particular had great games.

We were clever in changing our formations, starting off with a 3-4-1-2 with Whitaker behind or in the middle of the front two; then we switched a bit more with McAllister coming on. Whitaker changed position again and then, when Warrington came on, Whitaker was on his own up front, great energy from the youngster.

A great performance from them tonight.

Tony, it's a bizarre system of numbering. In PL2, it's 1-11 so they change numbers, in these cups, I thought it was first-team squad numbers but I'm not sure. We also seem to give the new Scholars numbers too and base those on alphabetical surnames.

Once you can recognise a few players by their height, playing style and can pick them out, it becomes easier. Butterfield and Price can be difficult as they change position and look similar to Whitaker, who thankfully plays further forward.

If you're able to watch a few games, it really helps when you recognise players and makes it more enjoyable as you remember certain ones.

Just picked my son up from this game. He said Mills and Astley played well.

He was looking forward to seeing Dobbin, but it was his replacement, McAllister who took his goal well…

Morecambe were physical, but we handled the pressure well, apparently.

Can everyone please look for the cancer research thread and read it.

My partners son who is a scholar at morecombe was given a text on Sunday to tell him to report for training with the first team on Monday, and that he was going to be in the squad for last nights game.

He hadn't been feeling well, so after playing on Saturday, I told his mum to take him for a covid test, and Sod's law, he received a text on Sunday night telling him he was positive.

It would have been a great experience for him, and hopefully the chance comes again for him in the near future🤞 because like a few of Everton's team last night, he's still only 17.

Phill,

Not sure you will see this but I came across some very strange names under Everton Squad Numbers listed here:

Everton FC Premier League Players' Squad Numbers 2021-22

34 Martin Kelly
40 Scott Banks
43 Rece Hannan
44 Jairo Riedwald
46 Rob Street
49 Jesuran Rak-Sakyi

I'm not convinced that the site is reliable although at a glance the previous years don't have any such strange names.