Under-21s Win First National League Cup Group A Game

Braiden Graham’s second half brace secured a 2-1 victory for Everton’s Under-21s as they beat Solihull Moors in their opening National League Cup game.

Solihull, whose National League season started last weekend, were the brighter of the two sides in the early stages and duly took the lead in the 10th minute as attacker Finley Holmes took the ball down well, ran at Odin Samuels-Smith and sent a powerful right-footed effort past George Pickford from 20 yards.

The Blues were not rattled by the early setback and twice came close to levelling in the first half, Aled Thomas forcing a fine save from Rory Brown to win a corner which Isaac Heath turned onto the crossbar after a neat ball back across goal from captain William Tamen.

It would take Paul Tait’s side until the 76th minute to finally get back onto level terms. A neat passing move taking in Callum Bates, George Morgan and Francis Okoronkwo ended with Graham being released into the box and, after battling to get control of the ball, the Northern Irish youngster applied a neat finish from inside the box to restore parity.

And it was Graham who got the winning goal in the 90th minute, dinking the ball with great composure over Brown after being played in by Okoronkwo’s defence-splitting pass.

The Under-21s begin their Premier League 2 season next Monday 18 August (7pm kick-off) against Blackburn Rovers at Walton Hall Park and are next in National League Cup action on Tuesday 16 September when they take on Tamworth at the Lamb Ground.

Tait was pleased with his side's defending throughout the game, and how that gave the Blues a platform to go on and win the game.

"I’m made up because it was a really tough test," Tait told evertonfc.com. "They caught us on the hop in the first half when their direct play was a bit of a shock to the system, with balls from everywhere landing in our box.

"But that’s exactly why we play these games in this competition and it looks like it’s going to be a good one for us. We defended really well and used that as a springboard to try and get more control in the second half, which is what we did.

"I thought Will Tamen was excellent all night. He headed everything and controlled the back, organising things. Their manager, Matty Taylor, told me afterwards that he thought Will was outstanding.

"The long throws they took were some weapon for them. He was hitting our goalkeeper from the halfway line. At 1-0 they were putting real pressure on and we could have conceded one or two more but we dug in and stayed in the game.

"Frankie (Okoronkwo) was tiring because he hasn’t had many 90 minutes games but we left on and he and Braiden Graham linked up well for the two goals. Braiden showed his quality – he had a little knock in pre-season but when he gets through one-on-one he’s a cool finisher.