New shirt numbers for the new signings; all the others retain their shirt numbers from last season, including Maupay and Holgate.

He did well for the U21s there last season.

The circus can go on.

Fingers crossed for the link.

Still 2,700 capacity — bit of a squeeze in The Showgrounds!!

There is still drama and heartache because I can't get the game up.

The OS is up to its usual standards.

The official link for streaming this game online is https://www.evertonfc.com/live.

But you'll likely have to pay £8.99 for the privilege...

And they're under way! Maupay kicks off!!!!

The commanding figure of Michael Keane heads it clear!

Hopefully we see Ndiaye off the bench

Absolutely shocking miss by Dominic Calvert-Lewin put through on goal and screws it wide.

Or does that ruin the Calvert-Lewin bashing?

At least McNeil's shot was on target!

But I know I should be grateful these multi-millionaires are putting in any kind of effort.

I don't think even his biggest fan could say his finishing was his strongest asset.

Sharpness is just not expected at this stage.

We should be about 5 - 1 up.

Err… I mean 5 - 2.

Campbell lucky to be still on the pitch, terrible tackle from behind.

Bad news about the take-over made worse by that performance on the pitch, though second half may, and must see changes.

It might be a good stop for me when I decide to visit Ireland!

I thought one of our posters said he never plays there?

Now there's a surname with memories. Nephew/relative of Seamus (Jim) McD?

It's good to see Everton back isn't it?

We are pure slapstick, like the comedy series that you love and know every new series will have the same gaffs and laughs.

Things can only get better, eh?

We are certainly one of the only teams to have a Roman playing for us!

Actually, he's midfield. Don't sign him, Thelwell.

Definitely won't fit into a Dycheball side.

The two new lads both looked decent, and Beto really put himself about. Both Chermiti's goals were classy too.

Pretty much everything we did came through Jack Harrison, who worked his arse off. He's a great re-signing.

At least we didn't lose this one... onwards Blues.

The bad news:- We let little Sligo Rovers put 3 past us and Mason Holgate is still an Everton player.

How must he be feeling?

Dixon looked good at full-back, Garner a bit of class and Ndiaye had some good touches. Tim also had some good moments

But it was embarrassing looking at Beto… no touch, and he tried with the outside of his right foot from 15 yards and nearly hit the corner flag.

Worth £60 grand?

The new boys were good, Jenson Metcalfe was good and Jack Harrison was superb. Chemiti looks a decent striker and I really enjoyed it — best pre-season game for many years. There's a lot more skill in this bunch than for a while now.

It's pre-season and the first game. I was listening to Dyche after the match and he made them run 13 km yesterday. They must have been knackered.

I personally thought it was an entertaining match. Unusual for pre-season as they can be drab affairs.

I thought McNeil looked good in the first half and Jack Harrison was the stand-out player in the second half. Very direct.

Mason Holgate goes from hero to zero. Scores then hits a hospital pass to the keeper, which I can only think hit and got stuck on a slug, who slowly carried it towards Virginia!

I was impressed by the young right-back, Roman Dixon. Plenty of promise there.

All-in-all, a good run out and entertaining. I hope the Irish Blues and those who crossed the Irish Sea had a good day out.

Like I say, I'm not getting carried away with pre-season. What we do on 17 August matters more.

I only wish that was true Danny. Sadly it is not. There will be no "on the pitch" if we do not sort out "off the pitch". Football clubs cannot survive from football alone.

We might be patchy on the pitch but we are world class shite off it and, until that is resolved, the pitch is secondary for what really matters.

Good man. My admiration of Séamus is second only to yours.

We should have won comfortably. We had more chances than a monopoly game.

The known problem has not gone during the post season rest. In fact returning strongly, especially in the first half.
So much good play to be in on goal and miss. Yes their keeper was good but our finishing was tardy. Inept. But we as Evertonians know that and have done so for Forty years, watching it get worse season on season. So why doesnt THRELFALL see that.
WE NEED GOALSCORERS
You have failed to find any.

I wasnt impressed by our usually impressive Virginia. Two down at half time and both should not have occured. Man on near post at a corner. Parrying a save back into the follow up area.

Second half was same old same old. Holgate scored then gifted them their third.
Chermiti scored a couple which were a cheeky (if possibly offside) back heal from four yards out and a nice curled effort fom 20 yards, right side of the box, left foot into left corner.
As all 11 were switched for a different 11 at half time there is no real lesson to learn.
A good come back perhaps. But it was a completely new side.
Possibly Chermiti is settling in and hopefully will get more game time. The rest cant hit the net with a wet fish from a foot.
Holgate still a liability.
Virginia learn from your two mistakes.
Should have won comfortably but failed to. again.
Bracing myself for the new season.

COYB

Bit of a jaunt earlier, the flight from Liverpool was delayed due to IT problems with flights in and out of Ireland apparently. “Fuck Microsoft, we're kicking off at 4” rings out from the back the terminal gate!

We got to Dublin at 11am and out of the airport at 11.15am just in time to miss the train from Connolly Train station which left at 11am for Sligo with the next one in 2 hours arriving in Sligo at 4.17pm.

So, we jumped in a cab to head the train off at Kilcock. But we got to the edge of Kilcock just too late to make it. “On to Enfield driver” (who was already cursing at every speed camera). We arrived at Enfield with a minute to spare and found the train had been delayed by 5 mins, yessss! made it (albeit an extra €88 lighter).

The rest of the journey went to plan and we made it into Sligo at 2.17pm as originally planned.

I had almost forgotten what a wonderful place Ireland is (North and South) and what great people live there. Met some absolutely brilliant people plus the usual away from home culprits, mad as hatters the lot of them.

And, how refreshing to go to a stadium where there is no segregation without any hint of trouble with a rough mix of 50/50 between home and away.

The football was quite entertaining although mainly low on quality. A few things to be optimistic about already covered in other posts with a few concerns. Fortunately it matters little at the moment with fitness more important than the performance.

All in all another great away day with the best, most fanatical and nuts support in the world. I wouldnt have it any other way.

Back to the singing now, altogether now "we hate Bill Shankly and we hate St John…."

Love it💙 UTFT!

Travel safe and see you soon.

Sounds like the cab driver had as much of an epic as you!!

See you soon, mate, I hope you are okay.

That IT problem was all over, Ladbrokes and Corals Websites down, many disrupted flights at different airports.

Shows how much we depend on technology these days (too much imho). Glad all went well mate in the end.

It must have been serious to affect the bookies. And thanks.

You name it, if it relied on a certain software security, which gazzillions of businesses and public sector services do, you'd had it.

Neil, you did a miracle job getting to the game at all.
Glad you did and celebrated Seamus' Sligo return too.

Illiman Ndiaye and the young lad at right back impressed at times.

Tom Iroegbunam had some nice touches and I was behind the goals for all the action.

Dublin has always been a good airport for me. Recommend anyone flying from these United States to somewhere over there that is not London or direct to go through Dublin. It's cheaper, usually quicker, US immigration do their stuff in Dublin and, if you so wish, give yourself a day or two in Dublin.

An unusually entertaining pre-season game that, however, might not mean a great deal for the bigger picture (made up for Seamus though; are we working on a backroom contract yet?) except that Dixon looks a prospect at right back, Chermiti looks like he has it in him to come good, Harrison can be very good (let's not go overboard, Sligo and all that).

Holgate is Holgate is Holgate is a woeful defender who must be sold who always had (typo but I wish that I could put it in past tense) a card or mistake waiting just around the corner.

Vai avanti Everton, sii coraggioso, formidabile Everton, che I tuoi bambini siano finanziariamente sani e bravi nel calcio.

Glad you had a great time, Shane.

The muppets who run cyber security AV software now admit they did it by accident on an upgrade. Whoops!

The program was missing about four players. Where was Tarkowski?

Derek, you're on top form! I rate Dixon, I reckon he can do a job and made up he's had a chance today.

But the off the off-the-park news spikes a good day. There must be more to come.

Epic journey and well in, Neil, and safe journey home.

The story goes on, surely there will be more on the Everton takeover soon.

By my reckoning, that was Reece Welch, a lad who's been up-and-coming with the Under-21s.

Two unconnected topics that somehow seem related.

All about getting players up to speed; I would not worry about today's game — I cannot see Pickford, Tarkowski, or Branthwaite sweating for their places.

Might as well give Maupay, Holgate and Keane a runout, might tempt someone coming in for them, though I cannot see anyone paying much for Maupay or Holgate.

I hope you enjoyed the day. It was Reece Welch at centre-back and Tarkowski picked up a glute injury in training which is thought to be minor.

Richard #110, I couldn't have said it better.

Given I offer him very little credit usually, I have to say I enjoyed Harrison actually running at the defence.

And we say we can't afford Calvert-Lewin's salary demands?

“Tarkowski has got a minor niggle at this stage and we have to be careful. We've got some other players we're just being a bit careful with — they're okay, just a few niggles that we're going to monitor but nothing too serious. We're hopeful with Tarky, hopefully it's nothing.

“Jarrad is making good progress as are Patterson and Dele so we'll see how those guys go. At this stage, it's nothing too serious so we're thankful for that.

“I was really pleased because with these games it's always awkward with scorelines but, at the end of the day, the lads did 13.5 km yesterday, which is a big day — trust me.

“They've had some really hard running so we expected them to not be totally sharp and obviously it's our first one.

“Overall, I was pleased with their commitment to it, their energy and the chances we created. We've got to score them, we know that from last season, but there was lots on show today. And thanks to Sligo as well for putting on a great game, a great atmosphere and there were loads of Evertonians here.

“It's been an excellent week. The way we've been treated by the Irish people has been terrific. The people in Sligo and the club have been fantastic to get this game on for us. It's fantastic for Shay [Coleman] from his distant past now. In the week he had an event and it's been good for him and good for us.”

13.5 km wouldn't be that much of a problem for these super-fit athletes but I'm guessing, if this day is not for the faint-hearted, then there will be a lot of high-intensity running involved, which means that the players involved would have covered over 8 miles running most of it at a very high speed.

I used to love pre-season, the smell of freshly cut grass still reminds me to this day of hard running because the benefits of those few weeks of purgatory lasted for months!

There were Blues everywhere, proper supporters not trophy hunters.

The players were very rusty apart from Gueye & McNeil in the 1st half and Metcalfe had a good touch.

2nd half, Garner and Harrison played well as did the new signings and Dixon had a couple of pacey runs. I would like to see more of him.

One of the stewards told me that Coleman bought 1,400 tickets for the game and gave them to the Everton Supporters Club. Class act from a legend and gentleman.

I thought Brentford supporters regarded him as the bee's knees coming home.

I'll get my coat?

I've had a nice break from reading about Everton for a few weeks, just waiting for news on the takeover and for my dad to let me know about any signings or sales…

I was not expecting to read the takeover news that I just did, so I hope things work out okay on the pitch for now.