Ricardo Almeida Santos, Kyle Dempsey and Kion Etete all returned to action as Wanderers helped put Everton’s stunning new stadium to the test, writes Pete Oliver.
Dempsey captained the Whites in the first half in a welcome first appearance since October following a knee injury as Wanderers’ B team became just the second side to play in the Merseysiders’ magnificent new waterfront home.
Almeida Santos and on-loan striker Etete also featured for the first 45 minutes as they stepped up their comebacks after being sidelined since January and early February, respectively.
Watching first-team boss Steven Schumacher – a former Everton youngster and Toffees’ fan – also took the opportunity to give game time to Klaidi Lolos, Jay Matete, Carlos Mendes Gomes and another Goodison Park graduate in Gethin Jones.
And following their withdrawal early in the second half, B Team coach Andy Taylor was able to send on three youth-team players to join the other youngsters in the line-up given a taste of the big stage ahead of the planned early finish to allow Everton to evacuate the 25,000 fans in attendance as part of the ground’s licensing procedure.
Everton will move into the near 53,000 capacity ground at the start of next season as they end a 133-year stay at Goodison Park.
Wanderers had been the first club to play a fixture there and with Everton then the first team to grace the Whites’ current home in a competitive fixture it was fitting that Wanderers received an early invitation to the Everton Stadium.
Back in 1997, the Premier League fixture at the then Reebok Stadium ended goalless and just as it looked as the return might have a similar scoreline, Everton struck five minutes from the end of the 65-minute match through Kingsford Boakye as the youngster put himself in the club history books with the stadium's first home winner.
While the result was irrelevant, it was Everton’s youngsters who deserved the victory, with Wanderers’ goalkeeper Luke Hutchinson the Whites' stand-out player.
Hutchinson made a handful of excellent saves, although was powerless to stop Boakye heading home the only goal of the game.
At the other end, Abdulla Alhammadi was given too little to do despite a lively opening sparked by Dempsey and Lolos.
Wanderers never really got themselves out of first gear, though, on an afternoon when the football almost played second fiddle with player-coach Andrew Tutte – a big Liverpool fan – closest to scoring for Taylor’s team before former AC Milan youngster Boakye enjoyed his moment in the sun after coming off the bench at half-time.
In the bigger picture it was a red-letter day for some of Wanderers’ youngsters, including Everton supporter Harrison Rice and ex-Toffee Emile Oliver, and a chance at least for some of the Whites’ senior players to ease themselves back ahead of more important battles to come.
Wanderers: Hutchinson; Toole, Almeida Santos (Rice HT), Hogan; Matete (Abimbola 56); Jones (Westwood 56), Dempsey (Tutte HT), Mendes Gomes, Weston; Lolos (Oliver 56), Etete (Isong HT).
Everton U21s: Alhammadi; Dixon, Welch, Tamen, Samuels-Smith; Butterfield; Heath, J Patterson, Graham, Benjamin; Sherif. Substitutes used: Boakye, Gomez, Moonan, Barker, Bates, Beaumont-Clark.
Attendance: 25,000