Match Report

Everton are into the third round of the Carabao Cup but they were pushed all the way by Championship side Huddersfield Town, particularly after Moise Kean was harshly sent off just before the hour mark.

Alex Iwobi had set the Blues on their way to what appeared as though it might be a routine victory with a goal midway through the first half, especially when Kean thought he had doubled the lead only for his goal to be chalked off for offside but poor set-piece defending allowed the Terriers back into on the stroke of half-time.

Kean's dismissal for an altercation just moments after the hosts had a goal disallowed for a perceived infringement seemed to signal an ominous turn of the contest in Huddersfield's favour but Andros Townsend struck 11 minutes from time to send Everton through.

Rafael Benitez made a raft of changes to his line-up, handing opportunities to a number of players who have been fringe members of the first team so far.

Kean was given striking responsibilities in the absence of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison, neither of whom were in the squad, while Asmir Begovic made his competitive debut for the club and Jean-Philippe Gbamin made his first start in an Everton jersey for two years.

Jarrad Branthwaite also made the team for the first time in 12 months following an ankle injury and then a loan spell at Blackburn while Niels Nkounkou got a chance to shine in the competition in which he did so well last season. Ben Godfrey travelled but was not included in the 18-man squad.

Everton carried all the early threat and came close to opening the scoring inside five minutes. Kean cut out a poor back-pass by Thomas and advanced to the Huddersfield box but fired disappointingly wide.

A minute later, Iwobi drove forward and fed Nkounkou who crossed low to the near post where Kean slid in to stab it goalwards but Lee Nicholls got down to make a one-handed save to keep it out.

Two more interceptions of sloppy Terriers passes in their own half threatened to let the visitors in but Townsend dragged an ill-advised and poor shot wide before Kean dribbled into a forest of legs in the area and his chance was lost.

A great ball by Jonjoe Kenny then found Davies free in space in the 19th minute but Nkounkou lashed his cross high over the bar. However, Benitez's men only had to wait another seven minutes before they took the lead.

Davies again found himself in oceans of space between defenders from Townsend's knock-on and this time he had time to push the ball in behind for Iwobi who made no mistake with an emphatic finish past the keeper.

Two minutes after that, a storming run by Nkounkou ended with him prodding the ball through for Kean and another one-on-one situation with Nicholls but the referee blew for a very, very tight offside ruling just as the Italian hammered the ball home for what he thought would be the goal that opened his account for the season.

At the other end, Daniel Sinani really should have levelled for the home side in the 34th minute, though, when Thomas got behind the Blues' defence down the right flank and crossed but while Begovic parried Sinani's first-time effort, he pushed it straight back to the forward who blazed over with the goal at his mercy.

Nkounkou had another sight of goal six minutes before the break when he ghosted in at the back post to meet a deep cross but couldn't keep it down and it flew well over off his shin.

Huddersfield grew in confidence, though, and after Frazer Campbell had shot narrowly wide after dispossessing Gbamin, the Terriers eventually got their equaliser after Sinani's curling effort had been headed wide by Holgate.

The resulting corner was whipped in where Tom Lees lost Michael Keane and rose unchallenged to head home just before half-time.

Buoyed by that goal, Huddersfield began the second half well with the all-too-often sloppy Gbamin losing the ball cheaply in the opposition half and the hosts counter-attacking where Sinani dragged a shot across goal and wide.

The same player then bounced a searching cross just wide a few minutes later before the game turned somewhat chaotic.

Huddersfield appeared to have taken the lead off another poorly-defended set-piece after Begovic had tipped Holmes's curling effort over but Pearson's "goal" was wiped out, harshly in retrospect, by referee Matt Donohue's whistle for a supposed foul by Campbell.

Three minutes later, Kean reacted badly to a barge by Holmes and was, ridiculously, sent off while his opponent was only booked for a tàªte-à -tàªte in the centre circle.

Benitez had already withdrawn Branthwaite in favour of André Gomes and the Spaniard then took Davies off for Lucas Digne and later introduced Demarai Gray for Nkounkou as Everton chased a winner to avoid a penalty shootout.

They did indeed take the lead again in the 79th minute thanks to a wonderfully-worked goal. Gomes and Digne exchanged passes on the left before the former picked up a return pass from Iwobi, drove to the byline and fired in a low cross where Townsend was lurking in front of the defender to sweep the ball high into the net.

Gray had a chance in stoppage time to put the result beyond doubt but Nicholls beat away his shot from a tight angle.

Ultimately, it was a much closer-run thing than it needed to be for Everton, with almost none of the players on show from the start, apart from Iwobi, coming out of the match with much credit.

Townsend atoned for what was a pretty ineffective display with the crucial second goal, Nkounkou was lively going forward but often didn't impress in his own half and none of the more senior defenders in the side — Keane, Holgate and Kenny — ripped up any trees against inferior opposition.

In midfield, Davies had an up-and-down game but at least weighed in with an assist but Gbamin betrayed two years of rust with a ponderous performance littered with errors while, up front, Kean, despite a fine finish for what should have been his first goal of the season, showed once more how ill-suited he is to the role of lone striker and how his temperament has the potential to hold him back.

Still, despite the obvious concerns over the squad's depth that the performance raised, the important thing was that Everton lived to fight another day and ensured that their name will be in the hat for the draw for the next round.

Man of the Match: Alex Iwobi

Lyndon Lloyd

Back In Town

“See you in a few weeks” my phone beeped. I wasn't aware of the Carabao Cup draw at the time but knew instantly what this meant - we had drawn Huddersfield Town in the cup.

The WhatsApp message was from Sean, an old university friend and big Huddersfield Town supporter. As Gaz and I went to university in Huddersfield many, many years ago, we were very keen to revisit the town, see some old haunts and relive some of our youth, so we decided we would make a bit of a day/night of it, and booked a few days off work. Dan joined us.

Gaz drove and it was plain sailing up the M62. We arrived in Huddersfield at around 2.30pm and having checked into the hotel we headed out for a few beers, first visiting The Crown until some of the clientà¨le forced us into a bit of a change of plan, a shame as the ale was flowing nicely in there. We then moved on to The Lord Wilson Weatherspoons where we met Sean and then onto The Warehouse, where I spent a lot of my time as a student as its good for food, drink and live sports. Nice to see it still standing strong.

As happens, time caught up with us and in the blink of an eye it was about 7.15pm and so time to head towards the John Smith's stadium. On route we chatted to a few Huddersfield Town supporters and we got to our seats well in time for kick off in what was a much changed line up for Everton with only Alex Iwobi and Michael Keane retained from Saturday's draw at Leeds United. The atmosphere created by both sets of supporters was vibrant, Everton wearing their black and orange kit were attacking the goal at the far end in the first half.

I felt we began confidently enough. It was good to get a first hand look at Jarrad Branthwaite who seems to be a very composed player. Huddersfield Town too played their part in what was quite a fiery encounter. Everton took the lead on 26 minutes when Tom Davies surged forward brilliantly after a quick give and go with Andros Townsend before placing a delicate through ball to Alex Iwobi. The Nigerian international finished well past Lee Nicholls to give Everton the advantage. The most impressive thing about the goal however was the delicious chest pass by Tom to Andros which triggered the move. If you haven't yet seen it try and watch it back, it's quite something.

We almost doubled our money only two minutes later when Niels Nkounkou rampaged forward and slipped the ball in for Moise Kean who finished emphatically, though the flag had unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, gone up for offside.

Gaz went down early to get the half time beers in and with a few minutes remaining in the half and seemingly no danger of Huddersfield Town levelling matters, Dan, Ben (another university friend who joined us for the match) and I headed up to join him. At the Huddersfield Town away end there isn't a concourse as such, its more of an outdoor area where fans can mingle, but there are very few, if any, places to rest your drinks or perch. So the sight of Gaz holding three beers together while gripping three packaged hot dogs with his teeth will live long in the memory.

And of course we missed the goal. A routine corner routinely headed in by Tom Lees who escaped the attentions of his marker Michael Keane far too easily. That's mistake number three in three games for Michael. The knives are being sharpened.

Huddersfield Town made quite the fist of it in the second half, aided of course by a red card for Moise Kean. I'm still unclear exactly what Moise did. Some of the lads around us seemed to think he had grabbed Sorba Thomas by the throat. I've seen a brief replay where he stops and squares up to the Huddersfield Town midfielder, but I haven't seen anything else. That's all we need with trying to get him off our books.

The Terriers kept on knocking on the door, the closest perhaps being when Duane Holmes let fly from range and Asmir did ever so well to tip it over the crossbar. Like ourselves earlier, Huddersfield Town also had the ball in the net but it was mysteriously chalked out for offside, much to our relief.

So with Everton a man down and on the back foot, it is credit to Rafa Benitez who substituted pro-actively and carved out the opportunity which put us into the hat for Round 3. It was an excellent and patient build up with two of our substitutes, Andre Gomes and Lucas Digne both heavily involved, culminating in Andre Gomes getting free into the penalty area, playing a great one-two with Alex Iwobi and pulling the ball back smartly to Andros Townsend who netted well. Delight amongst the Evertonians.

We managed to see the game out comfortably enough from here forth, with Huddersfield Town's spirit broken, provoking party time in the away end.

At full time we walked back into the centre and met Sean at The Vulcan, a very popular pub for Huddersfield Town supporters. It was great to chat to some of their fans and get an idea of their outlook on the game. Most of them felt they were a bit unlucky, probably with some justification. As we edged towards midnight we moved on to another bar called Showtime where there were a few other Evertonians enjoying a drink. It turns out we weren't the only Evertonians making a night of it.

It was great to be back in Huddersfield, a place I'm very fond of. And better still to get into the hat for the next round where a trip to Loftus Road awaits.

Player ratings

Asmir Begovic: He made some good saves though most of them I would say he would be expected to make. He worried me with the ball at his feet as he made some poor decisions. My early opinion is that he's a downgrade on Robin Olsen, though given financial restrictions its a sensible enough signing. 5

Neils Nkounkou: He made some good bursts forward though I wasn't convinced by him defensively. 5

Mason Holgate: Mason captained the side and put in a reasonable performance. 6

Michael Keane: In his previous two games this season I feel he has played well though made two big mistakes. In this one he made a mistake and didn't play particularly well. I think he will do well to remain in the team for Saturday. 5

Jarrad Branthwaite: Jarrad is certainly a very confident player and has a bit of John Stones body language about him. I'm keen to see how he progresses. 6

Jonjo Kenny: I thought Jonjo had a very good game at right back. We are all aware right back is a problem position and the feeling amongst Evertonians is that Jonjo is up to the job. He probably isn't. Though I would say that if come deadline day we still haven't addressed the right back position, we could do worse than have Jonjo as back up to Seamus. 7

Jean-Phillippe Gbamin: He did quite well in the middle in his first 90 minutes for over two years. 6

Tom Davies: He was busy as ever and I am still marvelling at that brilliant chest pass he made to get out opening goal up and running. 6

Andros Townsend: He had a good game with a hand in our opener and then scoring the winner of course. A good effort. 7

Alex Iwobi: A very good performance again from Alex who has started the season very impressively. LIke Andros, he scored one and had a hand in the other. An unlikely star this season perhaps. My man of the match. 8

Moise Kean: Disappointing. Disappointing that he managed to get himself sent off, but over and above that I'm disappointed in his performance and general movement. There were times when it looked like there were opportunities for him to make a run and stretch the defence but I found he was incredibly static a lot of the time. We will do well to get him off our books permanently in the next week or so and I suspect another loan move beckons. 4

Substitutes:

Andre Gomes (for Jarrad Branthwaite): He had a poor first five minutes or so but once he got to grips with the game he was excellent and made a key contribution to assist our winning goal. 7

Lucas Digne (for Tom Davies): The performance and professionalism on display from Lucas really highlights his quality and suggests Niels has quite a way to go. 6

Demarai Gray (for Neils Nkounkou): He did well, was busy and lively from the moment he crossed the white line. 7

Paul Traill

Match Preview

Everton's Carabao Cup campaign begins this evening with a trip to Huddersfield Town.

The Blues have made an unbeaten start to the new season, beating Southampton 3-1 at Goodison Park on the opening day and earning a draw at Leeds on Saturday and they will be hoping that their superiority on paper will translate into victory over the Championship Terriers.

Those efforts, combined with concerns over match sharpness for players returning from Covid-19 isolation and the desire to have everyone available for Saturday's trip to Brighton mean that Rafael Benitez will have plenty to think about as he plans his team.

"I would like to go through. I would like to play a strong team and compete and go through,” the manager said on Saturday. “Yes, I would like to do that. Can I do it? We will have to wait, because we have to see if we have any knocks, injuries or any problems.

"I don't want to lie. I said so many times — it depends on the squad; it depends on the situation. Obviously, when we play games with this intensity, we have to take that into account.”

Dominic Calvert-Lewin hasn't been able to train properly since returning to pre-season training because of a toe injury and is therefore unlikely to start. Richarlison, meanwhile, came straight back into Premier League action without a break having played 15 times for Brazil over the summer.

Benitez has talked of giving him a break and after his somewhat jaded-looking display at Elland Road at the weekend, he could also be withheld from the starting XI.

That could mean a start for Moise Kean whose first-team opportunities came in this competition last season before he joined Paris Saint-Germain on loan last season.

There may also be scope for the likes of André Gomes, Ben Godfrey and James Rodriguez to be involved at some point as they are believed to be out of isolation and are in need of playing time while Asmir Begovic could be handed a first competitive start.

Huddersfield come into the tie sitting in mid-table having drawn at Derby, won at Sheffield United but been hammered 5-1 at home by former Everton boss Marco Silva's Fulham the weekend before last.

Everton's second-round ties against lower-division opposition has been decent in recent years and you have to go back 20 years when Paul Gascoigne was parading around in a Royal Blue jersey for the last time the Toffees lost in this round of the League Cup. These ties aren't always easy, however, and it will take a focused display from whichever players are selected to take the Toffees through to the next stage.

Kick-off: 7:45 pm, Tuesday, 24 August 2021

Lyndon Lloyd

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