Tuesday night at Goodison Park, Everton Under-18s defeated a determined Stockport County 4-1 to book their place in the FA Youth Cup’s fourth round.
Kylan Depeiaza’s equaliser was followed by goals from Dutch striker Martin Sherif. Matthew Apter and George Morgan then completed the triumph late on to set up a home match against Chelsea the following month.
After three minutes, Stockport had the better of play and had the opportunity to take the lead, but Blues custodian George Pickford superbly stopped Lee Williams’ shot.
Following a close miss by full-back Joshua Van Schoor, Ashton Mee and Depeiaza also had their shots blocked. Kingston Fligg then had another opportunity.
Everton began to exert more pressure and gain momentum in the match. Aled Thomas’ header in the 19th minute went agonisingly wide, while Sherif’s shot just missed the left side of the goal.
After that, Morgan started a promising move down the left wing and found Joel Catesby with a low drive. However, the attempt was thwarted by the opposition’s tenacious resistance.
Harrison Armstrong enhanced the show with a spectacular attempt that narrowly missed the crossbar. A few minutes later, Kane Mavarantziotis-Bove, the visitors’ custodian, was forced to make a critical save following a well-executed corner on the left side.
After a while, Everton’s pressure paid off as Callum Bates’s corner produced the opening goal. With ease, Sherif climbed over the defence and headed the ball into the net to give his team a 1-0 lead.
But the game was far from finished, as in the two minutes of extra stoppage time in the first half, the Hatters produced a valiant comeback. Pickford was caught off guard by Depeiaza’s relentless drive, tying the score at one.
After mounting a comeback in the second half, the Blues took the lead in the 59th minute when Sherif blasted home Armstrong’s flick-on for his second goal of the game.
Stockport fought valiantly for a while, but Apter, a second-half substitution, put an end to the match in the 86th minute with a fantastic strike from a partially cleared corner that went into the top corner to give the Blues a two-goal lead
After Sherif curtailed his chances of scoring three goals with a stoppage-time penalty that went over the bar, Morgan completed the scoring with a fourth goal in the 100th minute to give the young Blues a well-earned win and set up a fourth-round match against Chelsea in January..