Two late goals from Everton’s Braiden Graham consigned our Under-21s to defeat at Stevenage on Friday night.
We’d competed well for the bulk of the contest and were unlucky not to be in front when Graham ran through and slotted home one-on-one with Luca Gunter despite loud appeals for offside with 18 minutes remaining.
The same player then clipped the ball over Gunter as his side again sprang forward from deep to complete a 2-0 win for his side. We stayed on the front foot right until the end but ultimately couldn’t find a way through, slipping to our first defeat in the Premier League 2 since a 2-1 home reverse against Southampton at the start of November.
Coach Wayne Burnett was forced to shuffle his pack with a number of players unavailable due to injury, Leon Myrtaj making his league debut at this level from the start with new signing Elisha Sowunmi and Under-16s midfielder Toju Wellspring coming off the bench in the second half.
Both sides had chances to take the lead during the first period but cancelled each other out amidst swirling wind and rain. Luca Furnell-Gill was a real threat getting forward from right-back and set up Reiss Russell-Denny for an early first-time shot, saved by George Pickford, in the opening stages, while Martin Sherif almost managed to wriggle through on goal at the other end but was brought down by retreating defender Pele Arganese-McDermott, the centre-back escaping with a yellow card.
Graham – who scored four times against us at the Lamex Stadium last season – floated a shot just off-target as we approached the half-hour mark while our captain James Rowswell prodded Russell-Denny’s free-kick wide of the near post just prior to the interval.
The weather conditions eased up at the start of the second period but while we were very much in the game, it was the Toffees who enjoyed the better chances, Sherif curling over, Omari Benjamin flashing a dangerous ball across goal that wasn’t converted and Malik Olayiwola coaxing a superb save out of Gunter as space opened up for him to try a shot.
Dante Cassanova went agonisingly close to giving us the lead on 65 minutes, ending his solo run with a deft shot that came back off the far post, Furnell-Gill with a couple of subsequent near misses as we kept the pressure on. In between those attempts, Olayiwola sent another inviting ball across the face of goal – again not converted by anyone in blue – but we were undone on 72 minutes when Benjamin sent a quick pass forward from deep, the offside flag stayed down and Graham ran through to score.
It was a similar build-up for Everton’s killer second goal on 84 minutes, Kingsford Boakye this time with the pass, Benjamin looked offside but didn’t get involved and that allowed Graham to run through and lift the ball over the advancing Gunter. To our credit we didn’t give in, but it just wasn’t to be our night.