Blues Bag Four In Pre-Season Opener At Dundee

Strikers Beto and Thierno Barry got on the scoresheet along with Academy youngster Harvey Foster and Dwight McNeil as Everton began their pre-season schedule with a 4-0 victory over Dundee at Dens Park.

With match minutes the priority at this stage of the summer, the Blues – wearing their new Castore white away kit which is available to pre-order now – put together plenty of bright spells of play on a sunny afternoon at the home of the Scottish Premiership side following a week-long training camp in St Andrews.

Beto was given the nod to lead the attack for David Moyes’ side and, after twice going close in the opening half hour, put the visitors in front shortly before the break when he received a pass from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on the edge of the area, spun his marker and saw his deflected shot beat keeper Kieran O’Hara.

Moyes made four changes for the start of the second half and another seven on the hour mark, which included Under-21s Eli Campbell, George Finney, Will Tamen, Harvey Foster, Malik Olayiwola and Braiden Graham.

Barry was among them, too, and the French striker made it 2-0 on 69 minutes, taking advantage of Harry Sharp dallying on the ball to close down the substitute keeper, block his pass, and see the ball spin into an empty net.

The Toffees then took full advantage of more defensive errors when  with six minutes to go, 19-year-old midfielder Foster gobbled up Sharp’s clearance and applied a sweet first-time finish from the edge of the area.

At the other end, Tom King did well to block Ash Hay’s low shot – and McNeil wrapped things up in the closing moments, Olayiwola intercepting another Sharp clearance, feeding Charly Alcaraz who unselfishly squared to McNeil to pass into the bottom left-hand corner.

The Blues now return for more training at Finch Farm ahead of their next test away to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 25 July (3pm BST).