Southampton U21 1 - 3 Everton U21 Everton Under-21s got back to winning ways as they registered an impressive 3-1 victory at Southampton on Monday afternoon. After a dominant first-half performance, the Blues led at the interval courtesy of a 20-yard free-kick from Conor Grant. But the hosts hit back in the second half when they caught David Unsworth’s side with a flowing counter-attacking move which saw Ryan Seager level the scores. Undeterred, the young Blues responded with two goals of their own, both from striker Chris Long, to secure a deserved three points. Everton started confidently and dominated possession in the opening stages, with Sam Byrne coming closest. After cutting in from the left, the Irishman unleashed a fierce volley that keeper Paulo Gazzaniga could only tame at the second attempt. Long then won a free-kick 20-yards out and Grant made no mistake in slamming a low drive into the bottom left corner to break the deadlock on 17 minutes. The dominance continued and Byrne came close to doubling the Toffees’ lead minutes later when he met Ryan Ledson’s diagonal ball. The forward could not make a telling connection, however, and his header was comfortably saved by Gazzaniga. The second half started in a similar fashion to the first, with Everton pressing and dominating possession. But Unsworth’s side were hit with a sucker-punch six minutes after the break as the Saints countered straight from an Everton corner. Omar Rowe scampered down the Blues’ right and picked out an unmarked Seager with an inch-perfect cross, the forward easily tapping home from three-yards to level. Everton almost regained their lead immediately as Grant found himself in space in the box, but the midfielder’s toe-poke was beaten behind by Gazzaniga for a corner. At the other end, Seager looked poised to put the hosts in front soon after but was expertly foiled by a superb last-gasp clearance from centre-half Matthew Pennington. And, after a brief end-to-end spell, the Blues finally regained the upper hand. Long hit the post with a powerful long-range effort after good link-up play with fellow forward Courtney Duffus - and then rattled the woodwork again seven minutes later after meeting a Jonjoe Kenny cross with a downward header. It would be a case of third time lucky for the Liverpool-born striker as he eventually put the Blues 2-1 up on 74 minutes, poking home from close range after intelligent work from Grant on the left flank. Long then doubled his tally and secured the victory with just nine minutes remaining. David Henen, who came off the bench to make his first appearance in an Everton shirt, beat his marker on the right and squared for Long to sweep in from three-yards.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:46:01 +0000
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