Martin Sherif and Coby Ebere’s goals for Everton against Liverpool in their 2-1 Under-18s Merseyside Derby win at Finch Farm on Saturday were just rewards for the hard work that Leighton Baines’ side are putting in believes his assistant coach Kieran Driscoll.
The Blues, who went 2-0 up before Kyle Kelly’s late consolation goal, dominated the fixture against their neighbours with the Reds having goalkeeper Luke Hewitson to thank for preventing a potential thrashing through a string of impressive saves.
Driscoll told the ECHO: “We were pleased with the way that we started the game, for the opening 25 minutes or so I thought we were really bright and I thought we created more than enough chances to put ourselves in a comfortable position. In terms of the two goals, there was a great pass from Jacob (Beaumont-Clark) to free Martin (Sherif) and it’s something he’s been working on a lot, those finishes off his right foot, so that was pleasing for him to come away from the game with that having worked on it a lot over the past couple of weeks so the credit goes to him on that.
“For the second goal, Coby (Ebere) is in a really good position at the moment, a really good space, he’s doing really well and just has that little bit of added confidence in front of goal and I think that showed.”
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In defence, Everton were able to keep Liverpool at arm’s length for prolonged periods and Driscoll was pleased with the youngsters’ discipline in this respect. He said: “We knew coming up against any Liverpool side we’d have to endure long spells of the game without the ball. Liverpool are a really good team in possession and they work the ball really well across the pitch and they always put you under a severe amount of pressure so we knew that was something we’d have to be alert to and I felt the lads were disciplined defensively, particularly in the second half when Liverpool started to get a bit more control of the game I thought the lads stuck to the game plan and defended really well.”
As you’d expect from a Merseyside Derby at any level it was a full-blooded affair but the Everton bench maintained the importance to their players of keeping their discipline. Driscoll said: “We as staff, the coaching team, we try and prepare for every game in the same way although the game always provides a little bit of extra flavour for the lads playing against some people they’ll have known growing up and who are their local rivals. For us to come out of it and win the game was a positive.
“It’s a question of trying to keeps the lads composed as much as you can do because sometimes the lads get carried away with playing the occasion rather than playing the game so it’s a case of trying to keep the lads in the best head space possible, to make the best decisions on the pitch rather than getting too caught in the emotion of it being a game against Liverpool and one they want to do really well in.”
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