Dominant Under-18s Put Five Past Burnley

Everton Under-18s produced a dominant performance to beat Burnley 5-0 ahead of next week’s big FA Youth Cup clash at Manchester City.

First-half goals from Jake Doughty, Ray Robert and Freddie Murdock put the Blues in a dominant position at the break with striker Jonathan Nsangou adding a fourth early in the second half to put the result beyond any doubt, before Robert added his second late on as a solid defensive effort across the 90 minutes securing a deserved clean sheet for good measure.

Keith Southern’s side were quickly into their stride at Barnthorpe and duly took the lead just six minutes into the contest. Left-back Harvey Billington reached the ball at the byline and clipped an inch-perfect cross to Doughty at the back post, who hit his half-volley into the ground and saw it bounce past Callum Feeney in goal.

The Blues were enjoying the lion’s share of possession and chances in the early stages and duly doubled their lead 12 minutes in. This time Robert tricked his way in and out of trouble, evading a number of challenges heading into the box before pulling the ball back across Feeney for a clinical finish.

Doughty sent a wayward effort clean over the bar as the young Toffees kept coming forward and as Burnley tried to build from the back in the 22nd minute, Murdock pounced – winning possession on the edge of the box and chipping a neat effort over Feeney and in to put the Blues 3-0 up without even a quarter of the game gone.

Robert forced a good save from Feeney after 39 minutes, driving through the centre and hitting a powerful low effort that the Burnley stopper did well to parry, and then dive upon at the second attempt.

Burnley stepped up in the final minutes of the first half, seeing more of the ball and threatening at the other end. Midfielder Albert Blackie forced a good save from the largely untroubled Seve Patrick with a low drive from 20 yards and moments later Patrick made an even better stop, this time tipping Vishon Masara’s goalbound effort around his near post.

Burnley continued on the front foot at the start of the second half, keeping the ball in Everton’s third and when Tambwe Leonard took the ball down well six yards out, the forward looked set to score, only for centre-back Lewis Evans to produce a stunning sliding challenge, deflecting the ball into the air which Patrick punched clear under pressure.

Everton dusted themselves down after that early chance and quickly worked the ball forward again, adding their fourth in the 54th minute as Nsangou slid in bravely to turn the ball over the line after Feeney had made a good save to deny Wren, who had cut in from the left.

Feeney came off his line well on the hour to deny Robert a second and the Blues a fifth, making himself big and blocking the striker’s shot as he bore down on goal.

But Robert would not be denied a brace and he ensured a five-goal winning margin for Everton by turning home Charlie Stewart's accurate cross past Feeney with an acrobatic diving header with three minutes to play.

Speaking after the game, Southern told evertonfc.com: "We challenged the boys to put a performance on after not playing last week. They've trained really well leading into this and they've been champing at the bit to get out there and perform. 

"(In our last two games) against Middlesbrough and Leeds, we got ourselves into a decent position and we didn't quite hang on to the lead for whatever reason. They're young lads, they're learning the game, so they're going to make mistakes, which is great and it's fine.

"But I thought it was a really dominant display today. We set our stall out, we had control of the game, we looked a threat at the top line with some really exciting patterns of play, which we've been working on.  

"The challenge at half-time at 3-0 was 'could we keep a clean sheet?'  I think we rode our luck a little bit in terms of that, and Burnley would probably feel unfortunate not to have scored at least one. 

"But we were really clinical in the final third. I think that was the pleasing part. It was a really good morning and afternoon and it leads us into a nice week ahead against Man City in the Youth Cup now."