For the second season in succession, Everton Under-18s' participation in the Liverpool Senior Cup has been ended by Marine.
The Northern Premier League Premier Division outfit were just too strong for the young Blues and ran out comfortable 4-0 winners.
Marine showed their intent from the outset and George Pickford was forced into an excellent early double save – palming away a well-struck drive from Louis White and then smothering the follow-up attempt from Bobby Grant.
Reece Welch did well to block a goalbound effort from Harvey Gregson and, at the other end, a half-volley from Isaac Heath took a deflection and bounced kindly into the arms of the goalkeeper Luke Hutchinson.
Marine squandered a golden opportunity midway through the first period when an unmarked Fin Sinclair-Smith pulled an angled shot from 10 yards well wide of the target, but Everton’s luck ran out 10 minutes before the break.
First, Sinclair-Smith provided a perfect delivery from the left and Gregson powered home his header, and then within 60 seconds, Owen Robinson’s precise finish made it 2-0.
In the 53rd minute, Marine effectively put the tie to bed when Sinclair-Smith again provided an excellent cross that the vastly experienced striker Grant, whose previous clubs include Scunthorpe United, Blackpool, Fleetwood and Wrexham, headed home from close range.
An all-too rare foray into Marine territory ended when substitute Jacob Beaumont-Clark fired straight at Hutchinson but not long after, Sinclair-Smith got the goal his performance deserved when he completed the scoring by curling a direct free-kick from 20 yards into the top corner of the Everton net.
MARINE: Hutchinson, Butler, Waters, Gregson (Nolan), Doyle (Ferguson), Wardle, Sinclair-Smith, White (Routledge), Grant (Pratt), Solomon (Happi-Fankam), Robinson.
EVERTON: Pickford, Samuels-Smith, van Schoor (Thomas), Moonan (Davis), Welch, Jones, Heath, Bates, Ebere, Armstrong (Foster), Boakye (Beaumont-Clark).
