Everton U18s defeat Reading in the FA Youth Cup at Goodison

Lost the pictures in the final minute, but they look like a good team this year, hopefully this is the start.

I took your tip about listening to the commentators, lasted twenty minutes, was one of them Snodin, the two of them were doing my head in, like listening to two Michael Owen's either side of me, they'd give a painkiller a headache.

Yeah, Darren Griffiths kept getting Apter's name wrong, calling him Harry. Peter Clark not too bad.

I enjoyed that. Owen Barker was the 7, I thought he looked like a young Kieran Dowell tonight, a very cooly slotted left-foot finish from him to make it 3-0.

We're away to Lincoln or Watford in the next round, not too bad a draw.

I've always gone to these FA youth cup games since it started in1955,I think,with Everton playing Man.Unt. andI think it is a big cup to win and an indication of how good the young players are and who to look out for in the future, I think there might be a few in this squad who might turn out to be more than useful in the next few years.

I enjoyed watching the stream of last nights game from the comfort of home, with one eye on the World Cup too! I would give them all 7/8 out of 10 last night, a pleasing performance, tempered by the fact that Reading are a lower level than us.

It's interesting trying to pick out the “ future stars”, and sadly for some last night at Goodison may we'll be their pinnacle with us. Some brief comments on players:
Seb Jensen. Untroubled in goal, his selection though suggests he's the leading u18 goalkeeper in the eyes of our Coaches
Roman Dixon. Far more comfortable bombing forward at right back than when he was right wing back against Mansfield. I'm happy to blame Godfrey for his poor performance that night though.
Jack Tierney and Ishe Samuels-Smith combined well together, and we're rarely troubled with ISS playing his normal composed game.
Jack Butler at left back was a surprise, but again it suggests he's the one the coaches rate.
Jack Patterson and Matty Apter bossed that deep midfield area, I was very impressed with both as they're first years. I'd seen a bit of Apter before but Patterson was the revelation for me.
Owen Barker looked a bit like Kieron Dowell, operating on the right and a sweet left foot. I'd only seen him playing centrally before, so his ability outside was a nice surprise.
Kobe Ebere operating on the left was a real handfull, a raw talent there and if we can add composure to his speed and drive we'll have quite a player.
Halid Djankpata as captain was always a steady influence in the middle and an attacking threat too.
Francis Okoronkwo lead the line well, my only criticism, harsh maybe, was that at the same age Simms and Dobbin would have had at least one more goal apiece.

I saw Djankpata for the first time in the demolition of Colchester. He looks like he has something. Creating space with good footwork and driving runs. Encouraging.

But where is Metcalfe? Is he still injured?

A pretty good summary of the players there: Patterson, Barker, Samuels-Smith, Djankpata, Ebere and Okoronkwo all had good games although I thought there was a lot more fight in Owen Barker than there was in Dowell.

I thought the lads played together as a team and hopefully they can go on a long run in this season's FA Youth Cup competition with the long-term aim of providing some good players for the first team.

That's good news about Jenson Metcalfe. In comparison, I've always rated him higher than Djankpata and Barker, and the club obviously have faith in him with that 4-year contract.

He said they would also love to take Stanley Mills, and that he thought the young fullback, Samuels-Smith, was a much better prospect than the kid who had just left Everton to join Man City.

He was actually very complimentary about a lot of the younger players at Everton, and said he believed most would make a career for themselves in the professional game. As always, time will tell.

At one time we looked like losing both Emilio Lawrence and Ishe Samuels-Smith and some thought I was wrong when I said of the two I'm glad we got to keep Samuels-Smith, a terrific prospect.

As you say, time will tell, the encouraging thing for me is that Cannon was nowhere near ever being a first-team contender a year ago, we've now started to actually improve these youngsters and maybe start to bridge that big gap between U21s and Premier League.