Blue Boys: Everton FC U-18s defeat Bolton Wanderers as elite group action resumes

Feb 7 2013 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo

EVERTON under-18s returned to competitive action with a 2-1 win at Bolton Wanderers.

The young Blues have seen the second half of their season disrupted by postponements due to the recent bad weather – a 3-2 home win over Reading on January 12 their only non-friendly fixture since 10 December.

But continuing where they left off against the Royals, Kevin Sheedy's side defeated Bolton thanks to a brace from Chris Long.

Wanderers took the lead on 38 minutes when a free-kick out wide evaded everybody and ended up in Russell Griffith's goal.

The Blues responded after the break and as George Waring put Long through on goal and the forward made no mistake.

Everton continued to tighten their grip on the contest and got their reward two minutes from time.

Harry Charsley was this time the provider as he found Long, who drove the ball low and across the goalkeeper.

The Toffees now sit top of the table after the opening two fixtures of the Elite group.

Sheedy said: “Duncan Ferguson has been doing a lot of training with Chris Long to work on his finishing.

“He was very clinical today so that appears to have paid dividends.

“We've made a good start to this new league.

“We didn't play as well as we could, but that might have been expected as we are probably a bit rusty from not playing much recently.”