Under-21s Edged Out By Shrewsbury

Everton Under-21s suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against Shrewsbury Town at the Croud Meadow on Tuesday night.

This was a real, middle-of-July slow burner. Neither side had an effort on goal until the half hour, when Shrewsbury won the game’s first corner and Everton twice cleared it before Josh Davidson fired over the bar.

Everton's best moment of the opening period came when Martin Sherif was fouled by Sam Stubbs (son of Alan) 20 yards from goal just before the interval, only for Harvey Foster’s direct free-kick to be superbly saved by Will Brook. Foster’s anguished reaction clearly showed he thought he’d done enough to break the deadlock.

Sherif had to leave the field after the initial foul, replaced by Ceiran Loney.

Five minutes after the restart, George Finney’s ambitious effort sailed over the crossbar and not long after, Brook made a much more routine stop from another Foster free-kick.

Everton were in the groove in the early stages of the second half and Malik Olayiwola volleyed over from close range.

However, it was Shrewsbury who drew first blood on 58 minutes.

George Pickford made a terrific low save to deny Jeval Thompson-McKenzie but the League Two side kept the move alive and when a cross came into the box Josh Ruffels headed home.

As expected, both teams made a plethora of substitutions as the game wore on, with David Hughes able to give Justin Clarke some valuable minutes on the grass as he continues to regain full fitness after a lengthy lay-off.

With five minutes to go, Everton’s substitute goalkeeper Douglas Lukjanciks made an excellent save to turn over an angled drive from Jay Turner-Cooke and from the subsequent corner the same player half-volleyed just over.

Malik Olayiwola had the ball in the Shrewsbury net in the 90th minute but he did so from an offside position.

Speaking afterwards, Hughes told evertonfc.com: "In certain aspects of the game we were really good. When we played forward with a bit more purpose, certainly in the first 20 minutes of the second half, we looked a real threat and posed them problems. When we turned down the opportunities to play through and slowed the game down a little bit, we allowed them to start to get on top of us and that’s where their goal came from.

"With young players you are trying to eradicate individual errors. We’ve had a really hectic three weeks, it’s been full-on with loads of work out on the grass and indoors. It’s been relentless for the players but we’ve got to keep working. 

"We’re trying to improve individuals to get them on the journey to where they aspire to be and our part in that is to keep challenging them and stretching them.

"We want to see these exciting young players showcase their abilities against senior opposition and they did it in flashes, in glimpses. We have to have them in a position where they consistently sustain it and really exploit the situations that we create.

"There’s work to do but there’s been some good progress in pre-season."