Two weeks short of 56 years ago, I was stood in the Paddock at Goodison Park as Harry Catterick’s League Champions Everton took on Borussia Monchengladbach in the European Cup. The match ended in a 1-1 draw and a famous Blues’ penalty shoot-out victory. The next “competitive” fixture between the two clubs was actually on Tuesday night at a wet and miserable Walton Hall Park as the Under 21s took on their German counterparts in the Premier League International Cup. This match also ended in a 1-1 draw with perhaps a little less riding on it!!
The young Blues lined up almost as in the teamsheet below. Jonathan Nsangou was a last minute withdrawal and was replaced by Shea Pita, himself continuing his recovery from injury.
It was immediately obvious that the German side were physically much bigger and more experienced than the Toffees, fielding one 30 year old centre back and a couple of 22 year olds and even their youngsters were bigger than ours!
That didn’t stop the Blues having the first meaningful attack in the 5th minute as Ezra Carrington and Braiden Graham fashioned an opening for the inrushing Melvin Matos. He fired narrowly wide of the angle.
In fairness, the opening goal for the German side 3 minutes later saw a fine defence splitting pass free Uwakhonye behind George Finney and Luis Gardner. John Dodds’ valiant sliding interception was in vain as the left winger slotted home, 0-1.
Everton, at this point were pedestrian in possession with little movement up front and, as sloppiness crept into their game, Jack Patterson who is normally so safe in possession, lost the ball outside his own area and was grateful for Dodds bailing him out.
After a few more close scrapes, the Blues got a good equaliser in the 34th minute and the craft was from Graham and Pita. The latter’s cross just brushed the head of Graham and Ceiran Loney was on the spot at the far post to steer home for his first of the season, 1-1. You’d have to feel pleased for Loney as he has had to plough a lone furrow up front this season in much the same way as Thierno Barry has for the first team. See the goal below:
It seemed to spur the Blues into life as a repeat move two minutes later, following a delightful Graham run, saw Pita’s cross just avoid Loney at the far post.
Although the Toffees were grateful again for a goal-line clearance by Dodds, two Everton chances were to follow in added time as in 45+1 Malik Olayiwola shot narrowly wide after great work by Graham and then in 45+2 Olayiwola again shot from 22 yards. It hit the inside of the post unfortunately with the goalkeeper nowhere near it and it ran across the goal somehow. The Blues were definitely in the ascendancy as the half came to a close.
The second half began with the simmering tensions of the first half ready to explode. The German side had been all too willing to flatten one or two of our players, Matos and Olayiwola especially, yet had squealed whenever they were touched. In the 50th minute they picked the wrong players to bully as firstly George Finney stood his ground against an unnecessarily aggressive challenge and then as “handbags” ensued, John Dodds let them know in no uncertain terms they’d be in for a fight if they carried on.
To be fair, the referee brandished four yellow cards including two to our players but he managed that situation well. We’ve seen a few red cards for the Blues for retaliation this season but their reactions were more on the “assertive” side so it was very much “lessons learnt”. It was good to see a bit of old-fashioned behaviour and camaraderie that wouldn’t have been out of place at Goodison 56 years ago!! The German side needed to be grateful that it wasn’t vintage Johnny Morrissey from 1970 they were picking on or there’d have been some proper retribution!
To be honest, after that excitement the game fizzled out a little, a Patterson back-header and a long Harvey Foster shot being the only attempts of note. Patterson sadly suffered a nasty-looking hamstring injury.
Meanwhile last Saturday the U18s fell to a 1-3 reverse at Stoke City. A positive from that game is that young Scottish striker Kai Hutchison (below) who was signed from Dundee United in the summer, scored his 3rd goal in the last 4 games.
As a bonus look at Hutchison he played on Wednesday against Derby County for the U17s who we rarely see. Here’s the hat-trick he scored, he looks some goalscorer!
So that’s two Scottish centre forwards scoring for the Blues in the same week that Goodison great Duncan Ferguson got himself a new gig at Glentoran in Northern Ireland, things are looking good!
And just because we don’t see enough goals, here’s the other two goals in that Derby County match both scored expertly by another bright prospect, midfielder Harry Brookes
Our U21s face Wolves on Friday night while the U18s have a Saturday lunchtime fixture at Finch Farm against Nottingham Forest.
