Under-21s Suffer Narrow Defeat In Norwich

Everton Under-21s suffered a narrow 2-1 Premier League 2 defeat against Norwich City at Carrow Road on Friday.

Justin Clarke scored a fine individual goal for Paul Tait’s side on the stroke of half-time but a missed penalty in the second half prevented the Blues from taking a point.

Everton were indebted to George Pickford after just nine minutes when he dived athletically to his right to stop a well-struck effort from Dylan Jones. The Canaries striker would not be denied though and rifled home an unstoppable shot after a quarter of an hour.

Everton responded well – George Finney shot wide after some excellent wing play on the left by Isaac Heath and then Finney turned provider when he slipped a lovely weighted pass into the path of George Morgan who struck the ball first time into the side netting.

Pickford was at it again on 30 minutes when he made a terrific save to thwart Billy Gee. The Norwich defender was poised to celebrate when he headed goalwards from close range but Pickford somehow pushed the ball away.

Morgan was then denied by Norwich keeper Caleb Ansen before Clarke scored an excellent equaliser in first-half added time. The home defence could be forgiven for thinking there was no danger when Clarke picked up the ball on the far left of the pitch, but he proceeded to skip infield, evade a couple of challenges and then finish neatly past the keeper.

 

To huge frustration on Paul Tait’s part, parity didn’t last long. The second period was a little over 60 seconds old when Ken Aboh crossed from the right for Jones to tap in his second goal of the evening.

Some of Everton’s play was nice and easy on the eye – but just not often enough and not in the dangerous areas.

As the second half wore on, Ansen saved an angled effort from Clarke and Pickford parried an Aboh drive.

In the 72^nd minute, Braiden Graham and Heath skilfully fashioned an opening for the latter and when Ansen blocked, the loose ball was hammered on target by Aled Thomas only for the keeper to save again.

Within a minute, Graham fed Heath a second time and when his legs were whipped from under him the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the penalty spot.  Graham struck his spot kick fiercely, but Ansen made a superb save.

Norwich substitute Alan Domeracki drilled a low shot past Pickford with a few minutes remaining, but Eli Campbell was well positioned to make a goal line clearance.

There was a controversial incident in added time when Heath’s run through on goal was ended illegally by Damari Daley who was more than a little fortunate to only see yellow and not red.

Tait told evertonfc.com: "They were a threat on the top line in the first half so we knew we had to deal with that. We conceded a poor goal but then we got back in it with a really good individual goal.

"We thought at half-time that we had a bit of momentum but then we come back out and concede a goal – everything goes out of the window then. We’d said that the only way they were going to score would be in transition because they had some pace and power.

"After that though, I thought we were excellent with some of the football we played and some of the chances we created. Our play through the midfield was exactly how we want it to be. Okay, we missed a penalty but we kept the ball well and got in behind them. Isaac Heath and Braiden Graham combined really well. 

"We had good little bursts of creative play, but we didn’t get our heads on stuff in their box. We put some great balls in and we’ve got to win more headers.

"Isaac was very good tonight. He can play in a number of positions – the number ten or on the left.

"If the penalty goes in, I think we win the game. I’m gutted for the lads because we deserved at least a draw."