Nathan Patterson and James Garner stepped up their recovery from injury by featuring for Everton under-21s against PSV Eindhoven on Thursday night.
The pair both played in the 3-0 defeat for Paul Tait’s side at Goodison Park. Goals from Isaac Babadi, Jenson Seelt and August Flyger doing the damage.
Garner has been suffering with a back complaint and hasn’t played since the season restarted following the World Cup. The midfielder was signed from Manchester United during the summer transfer window.
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Meanwhile, Patterson has been sidelined since the 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion at the start of January. The former Rangers man also missed a chunk of the opening months of the season after picking up an ankle injury while playing for Scotland in the Nations League back in September.
The right-back played just over an hour, while Garner completed 84 minutes. The midfielder could now come into contention for Sunday’s game against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
However, the pair were powerless to prevent the Blues from exiting the Premier League International Cup at the quarter-final stage in an end-to-end game at Goodison.
Both sides created chances during an open first-half with Patterson hitting the post with a volley and Isaac Price seeing an effort cleared off the line by Fedde Leysen. While at the other end, Bill Crellin produced three fine saves to keep out efforts from Isaac Babadi, Mohamed Nassoh and Simon Colyn.
But on 26 minutes the visitors broke the deadlock when Colyn pounced on a mistake by Callum Bates. The Everton youngster misjudged a ball over the top and after Colyn raced clear on goal he teed up Babadi who finished into the empty net.
Paul Tait’s side started the second-half strongly and went close again through Patterson before Francis Okoronkwo dragged an effort wide. But just after the hour-mark the Blues were made to pay for failing to take their chances when the Dutch side doubled their lead.
After Everton failed to clear a corner, the ball eventually fell to Seelt, who saw his shot roll into the bottom corner of the net despite Crelling getting a hand to his effort. PSV then sealed their place in the last four in stoppage time when substitute August Flyger raced clear before finishing past a helpless Crellin.
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