Everton Under-18s Beaten At League Leaders Boro

Everton Under-18s boss Paul Tait has urged his team to use their 2-0 defeat at top-of-the-table Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon as a valuable learning experience.

Josh Coburn gave the home side the lead 17 minutes in before Pharrell Willis doubled Middlesbrough's advantage on 49 minutes.

The young Blues carved out opportunities as they strived to battle their way back into the game but could not make a breakthrough.

Everton are fifth in the U18 Premier League (North) division and return to action on Tuesday when Leeds United visit USM Finch Farm (3pm).

"We created a couple of half-chances in the first half, but we never really got going in possession of the ball," Tait told evertonfc.com.

"The game was a bit stop-start and was played in horrendous conditions. But we didn’t do enough in possession.

"In the second half we started really brightly, we changed the formation, and we wanted to try to get our midfield players on the ball a little bit more.

"But we conceded another goal through an individual error.

"The rest of the game was about trying to break Middlesbrough down and we created a couple of really good chances, but we couldn’t take them.

"It was just one of those days. We’ve got to learn from it.

"We’ve got another game coming up soon against Leeds and we want to improve, both with and without the ball."