UNITED TOO STRONG FOR TOFFEESMowatt and Wood on target in friendly win...
PUBLISHED 01 AUGUST 2015 AT 01:00
12 1PRE-SEASON, EVERTON
UNITED 2 (Mowatt 57, Wood 80), EVERTON 0
United team: Silvestri, Berardi, Bamba, Bellusci, Taylor, Adeyemi (Wootton 81), Cook (Phillips 70), Mowatt (Antenucci 81) , Byram, Doukara (Erwin 72), Wood (Morison 81). Subs. Turnbull, Coyle, Cooper, Sloth, Horton.
Everton team: Joel, Robinson, Pennington, Browning, Jones, McCarthy (McAleny 45), Barkley (Ledson 76), Oviedo, Dowell, Naismith (Mirallas 76), Kone (Cleverley 45). Subs. Stanek, Osman, Grant, Walsh.
Referee: M Atkinson
Booked: Byram (United)
Att: 17,057 (1,734 Everton)
United’s final pre-season friendly of the summer saw Premier League opposition visit Elland Road, with Roberto Martinez bringing his Everton side to West Yorkshire as preparations for the new campaign entered the closing stages.
It was Uwe’ Rosler’s first taste of the home dug-out and his side looked to start brightly in front of an impressive 17,057-strong crowd. Fellow home debutant Chris Wood found himself forced wide after an early counter-attack, before the summer signing from Leicester had his first sight of goal on eight minutes, stinging the palms of Everton ‘keeper Joel Robles with a ferocious half-volley from 25 yards.
It was a lively start to proceedings and United – wearing their new all-yellow away kit – carved out another good, early opening after a bursting run down the left from Charlie Taylor. His low cross was just stolen from the toes of Wood and the loose ball rolled into the path of the arriving Alex Mowatt, but he could only lash over the bar from the edge of the area.
At the opposite end, Everton came close through youngster Kieron Dowell, his low strike just deflecting behind for a corner, but it was United who were enjoying more the ball during the opening exchanges.
Mowatt then had Joel sprawling across his line with a 25-yard effort which curled just wide of the Everton goalkeeper’s far post after strong hold-up play from Wood.
Rosler's men had seen the better of the opportunities come their way and they did have the ball in the back of the net after 40 minutes, only for the linesman’s flag to deny Wood from opening the scoring.
Everton made two changes at half-time, introducing Tom Cleverley and Conor McAleny for Arouna Kone and James McCarthy, while United returned unchanged for the second period.
McAleny thought he had opened the scoring with a goalbound header on 56 minutes, but a superb, sprawling save from Silvestri somehow kept the midfielder at bay.
And despite finding themselves somewhat under the cosh since the restart, United took a deserved lead through Mowatt’s cool finish after a neat one-two with Sam Byram inside the area, slotting the ball beyond the helpless Joel.
Another fine move moments later saw Byram clip the ball over Joel’s bar after being picked out by an inch-perfect pass from Wood, before Rosler made his first changes of the afternoon, bringing Kalvin Phillips and Lee Erwin on in place of Lewis Cook and Souleymane Doukara.
The lead was then doubled on 80 minutes as Wood let fly from 25 yards out, with his strike taking a deflection as it looped over the helpless Joel in front of the Kop.
The Everton defence somehow held firm to deny Morison on the line and scramble clear in the closing stages, keeping the scoreline to just 2-0 as United ended the 2015 pre-season with an impressive home win.
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