Late Shrewsbury Goal In EFL Trophy Defeat For Under-21s

A 92nd-minute winner condemned Everton Under-21s to a 2-1 EFL Trophy defeat at Shrewsbury Town.

The Blues had fought back from a goal down through Omari Benjamin before conceding in added time.

Everton thought they had taken the lead as early as the sixth minute but a close-range snapshot from John Dodds produced an excellent save by goalkeeper Sam Proctor.

Shortly after, Braiden Graham sprinted down the left and placed a low shot towards the far corner only to see it blocked.

The hosts' first meaningful effort came midway through the half, but Isaac Fletcher’s effort lacked the pace to really trouble Fraser Barnsley.

Proctor then did well again to first thwart Graham, who had been nicely picked out by George Finney, and then save from Shea Pita after the Everton winger had breached a sloppy offside trap.

The hosts then had a period of territorial domination. On 28 minutes, captain Jay Turner-Cooke curled a direct free-kick around the Everton wall and was unfortunate to see it bounce off the foot of the post to safety and Joseph Gbode came close with a header that just drifted wide of the target.

At the other end, a deep cross from Pita was volleyed into the side-netting by Harry Brookes.

The first attack of the second half should have brought the opening goal. Barnsley saved from Gbode and when the loose ball fell to Jay Snook he couldn’t move his feet quickly enough to convert.

The hosts were not to be denied though and they took the lead in the 51st minute. Michael Golding was the scorer with an unstoppable drive from the edge of the box that fizzed past Barnsley into the top corner of the net.

The advantage came within a whisker of being doubled shortly after when Fletcher’s nicely controlled half-volley came back off the crossbar.

Barnsley dived low to his left to gather a Gbode header as Shrewsbury started to control the game. For Everton, substitute Benjamin drilled wide in the 73rd minute and then the same player cracked home a fine leveller 10 minutes later when he ran onto a through pass from Graham and showed great composure to guide his finish past the keeper at his near post.

Benjamin was proving to be a real handful and another low effort from 15-yards missed the right post by a matter of inches.  The Toffees had the upper hand now and Finney was next to test Proctor with a low drive.

So it was cruel that Shrewsbury should snatch an added-time winner from Jeval Thompson-McKenzie who hooked home from close range just moments after seeing his header very well saved by Barnsley.

Everton are still alive in the EFL Trophy but only just, needing to defeat Tranmere Rovers in their final group game and hope that Stockport County do the same when they meet the Wirral outfit.

Speaking after the game, Head of Academy Player Development Dave Hughes told evertonfc.com: "I’m massively disappointed but the players were competitive, which is the minimum, and although it finished 2-1, it could have been the same scoreline the other way with the chances we had.

"You look at the chances we had in the first-half, we had enough to put ourselves into a good position. And when you don’t take them, the game is always going to look different.

"I’ve got to credit the players for showing the resilience to come back, but you’ve got to be critical and say that we conceded from a set-play, which is unacceptable really. We don’t win the first contact and then we lose somebody on the post which means he’s onside when he should be offside. All in all though, some really good bits in the first half and we did enough to come away with something.

"Some of the positives were the individual performances. Fraser (Barnsley) made a couple of good saves, Melvin Matos was very good in midfield, combative and some of his receiving techniques to drive forward were excellent.

"Omari shows an electric change of pace to get inside and there is definitely an opportunity for him to grab a starting place in the team. The way he did tonight probably re-enforces that point and I am pleased that he got himself a goal.

"It was amazing to see Will Tamen back. Will is an unbelievably good character and for a young professional he is so mature the way he conducts himself. You forget he’s still young because he’s a great role model for some of the younger players and really pleased to see him back."