Everton: Wright (R), Wright (S), Wilson, Hughes, Boyle, Harris, Vidarrsson, Plessis, Seargeant, Vaughan, Anichebe.

Bench: Phealan for Vidarrsson(65m), Fowler for Anichebe(82m), Kearney, Holt, Kearney.

Goalscorers: -

Andy Holden's second string went down to a Man Utd team which had 7 players with Premiership pedigree, including Internationals Alan Smith, Kleberson, Phil Neville, Liam Miller and Roy Carroll. In contrast, Everton had nine players eligible to represent the club's Youth side. So to lose by a second half penalty was a good performance for the young blues. Dickie Wright had a good game pulling off many important saves.

Everton were captained by defender Mark Hughes, who only signed his first professional contract at Goodison earlier this season.

Yosser says: “This game has given me a taste of the highest level. I’ve realised how hard it actually is. It was a step up into the reserves and an even greater step up when you face Premiership players who have represented their country, even at this level. It was a fantastic experience and one that’s going to spur me on to keep working hard, so that I improve my game. It was a great experience to come up against Alan Smith - even Giuseppi Rossi was good. They are two completely different strikers, so you have to adapt quickly to both of their styles of play. I must admit, when we were getting in our positions for corners early on in the game I was thinking: ‘I’m marking Alan Smith. This guy’s played for England!’ At that moment Phil Neville came into the box - another international, who was really up for the game. Their team was filled with excellent professionals. It was one of the best games of my life.”

Andy Holden says: “I thought Richard Wright carried us along at times and throughout the game he was different class. His attitude to his profession is fantastic, he trains himself extremely hard and he's a good lad to have around your training ground. He really helped the youngsters this evening and pulled off some magnificent saves.

“The lads did very well. They worked their socks off. I think I asked too much of them sometimes, because they were absolutely dead on their feet at the end of the game. I was a little bit disappointed to lose the game as a result of a penalty. If they were to have strung five or six passes together and scored a decent goal that would have been fair enough, but to lose it with a penalty was disappointing. There were some good performances. Not a single outfield player in our side had Premiership experience and we came up against a team of six international players, who were putting in a lot of effort.”

(07/04/05)

Reserve Fixtures