Hackney Debuts As Everton Narrowly Beaten In Pre-Season Test

Everton continued their pre-season schedule on Tuesday evening, falling to a narrow 1-0 defeat to Stoke City at bet365 Stadium.

Summer signing Hayden Hackney made his first appearance as a Toffee, looking sharp for a promising 45 minutes before being withdrawn as planned at half-time.

Stoke edged in front through Gabriel Kelly in the second period – putting the hosts into a lead they kept until the final whistle.

But that didn't tell the full story with Everton looking sharp in the first half, with the likes of Tyrique George, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Harrison Armstrong and Merlin Róhl impressing.

Everton were linking up well in the early stages against the Potters in what was the Blues’ third pre-season fixture of the summer.

George was a persistent threat while opportunities for openers also appeared on 20 minutes when Röhl – operating at right-back – delivered a low driven ball into the box. Goalkeeper Viktor Johansson did well to tip it away.

Shortly after, Dewsbury-Hall played a clever through ball towards Beto, but Johansson rushed out, sliding to claim the ball.

Hackney off at half-time for Tim Iroegbunam, the Blues carved up Stoke with a well-worked move on 55 minutes as Tyler Dibling cut in from the right, playing a one-two with Beto. He then slid Dewsbury-Hall into the penalty area, but his shot was deflected over the bar after a stretching defensive challenge.

Kelly then opened the scoring for the home team minutes later, curling a first-time effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the Everton box.

Blues manager David Moyes made six changes on the hour as Tom King, Jake O’Brien, Adam Aznou, Charly Alcaraz, Dwight McNeil and Thierno Barry came on for Mark Travers, James Tarkowski, Vitalii Mykolenko, George, Dibling and Beto.

A close end to the encounter, O’Brien crashed a header against the opposition crossbar, before King produced a fine save to deny Milan Smit’s effort on a 92-minute quick Stoke counter-attack.

A trip to Germany to continue work ahead of the new season is up next for the Toffees, who face Hamburg on Saturday 1 August (4pm BST).