Sean Dyche watches on as Everton U21s see EFL Trophy hopes dealt blow
Everton first -team manager Sean Dyche was an interested spectator at the Pirelli Stadium alongside his assistant boss Ian Woan but in truth, on this showing few of this young Blues Under-21s team look ready to take the step up to the senior side as they were beaten 2-0 by Burton Albion to fall to a second consecutive defeat in the group stages of this season’s EFL Trophy.
Four years ago in the same competition, Everton’s second string came to the Pirelli Stadium to face Burton, who like now were in League One and had knocked Premier League Bournemouth out of the Carabao Cup in their previous game with a 2-0 victory in which on-loan Blues player Nathan Broadhead scored on a night when the action was stopped three times because of floodlight failure. Back then, Everton illuminated proceedings with a 2-0 triumph, with Ellis Simms firing them ahead just six minutes in before Antony Evans doubled their tally on 59 minutes.
Simms of course went on to secure a precious point for a Dyche side that avoided the club’s first relegation in 72 years by a single goal last term when he shrugged off Kalidou Koulibaly to net a late equaliser for the Blues in a 2-2 draw at Chelsea. The Oldham-born striker subsequently went on to move to Coventry City this summer in a deal that could be worth up to £8million while the Senegalese centre-back who had been touted for a big money move to the Premier League for several years before eventually arriving at Stamford Bridge, decided to go earn some easier money in the Saudi desert after just a solitary season in England.
Also in Everton line-up that night was a certain Anthony Gordon, who departed Goodison Park for a cool £45million in January. But while football fortunes can fluctuate relatively
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