Under-21s Earn Hard-Fought Win At Middlesbrough

A second-half header from Omari Benjamin gave Everton Under-21s a 1-0 victory against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.

It was largely a scrappy affair with genuine goalscoring opportunities very much at a premium but over the 90 minutes the Blues were full value for the win.

As early as the third minute, George Finney carried the ball forward from defence and slipped a lovely pass into the path of Braiden Graham, but the in-form striker saw his effort saved by Owen Foster.

Middlesbrough’s best chance during the opening exchanges was all of Everton’s doing. The Blues surrendered possession on the left and when the ball landed at the feet of Sonny Finch, he pulled a low shot narrowly wide.

Everton then survived a real scare in the 27^th minute. Finch’s effort was too hot for George Pickford to hold but Aled Thomas scampered back to hack the ball off the line, before Jayden Carbon’s follow-up drive smacked against the post.

Finch was busy up top for the hosts, but he should have done better than to shoot over the bar from 15  yards later in the half, while at the other end, Jacob Beaumont-Clark turned smartly inside the box only for Foster to rush off his line to smother the final attempt.

Everton took the lead on the hour. Jack Patterson swung a corner from the left into the Middlesbrough area and Benjamin headed it home from close range.

After taking the lead, Everton rarely threatened the Middlesbrough goal, but the hosts offered very little in terms of creativity themselves and Pickford’s goal was well protected by those in front of him.

Indeed, it was added time before the Blues keeper had to make save worthy of the name. Substitute Eric Hamelberg shot from distance and Pickford watched it all the way.

Everton could have wrapped it up deep in added time but substitute Justin Clarke fired straight Foster after breaking down the right.

Head Coach Paul Tait told evertonfc.com: "I’m made up, I thought we thoroughly deserved it. From the very first whistle we created chances.

"We could have scored two goals in the first half and we were always a threat on the break in the second half. We got the goal off a set play, and that’s been a long time coming so it was nice to see Omari head that one in. Then we had to do some defending at the end.

"We went to a back five at the end to give us an extra defender and that probably helped us because they were throwing balls in the box, but I thought we defended brilliantly.

"We had good possession and good territory, got up the pitch and played in our shape, and probably at the end there was a little bit of panic because we wanted to get the win over the line. You could see a few poor decisions, which is expected because they were desperate to win. I’m really pleased for the players that we got over the line.

"They’ve worked really hard this week – they work hard all the time but they worked really hard this week on the defensive side. The goal was to keep a clean sheet and we always felt we’d get a goal. They kept the clean sheet and every one of them to a man, from the front players to George in goal, defended excellently.

"The last few games have been entertaining but we’ve come out on the wrong side of (the result), so I think they were determined that we were going to come out on the right side of it (tonight)."