Sheedy: George Green turned the game for us
Kevin Sheedy was happy to see his Everton under 18 side progress to the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup with a 4-3 victory against Birmingham City at Goodison Park lastnight, but the former Everton winger was disappointed with the overall performance.
Calum Dyson, Courtney Dufus and George Green were the scorers, but Sheedy was not happy with some of the goals that were conceded.
“We knew Birmingham were good going forward but not so good defensively, so we are not surprised that we scored four goals,” Sheedy told evertontv when offering his post-match assessment.
“We are disappointed to concede three goals though, especially two of them after we had scored. We were never really comfortable, even though we were in front.
“We had Birmingham watched and they played well tonight to be fair to them. But it was one of our weaker performances of the season – we didn’t pass the ball like we can do and that was the disappointing aspect.
“In cup football your main aim at the start of the game is to get through to the next round, which we are pleased to have done.
“We could have done it playing a better style of football and not conceding so many, but I said to the lads that on another night we could have got beat, so we are in the hat. Hopefully our performances will improve from here.”
Sheedy paid particular praise to Courtney Duffus and in particular George Green who came on and scored 2 games. Green has been injured for a few weeks, but came on as a substitute to show his importance to the side and build on his growing reputation.
“There were some excellent finishes,” added the Under-18s coach. “I thought Courtney Duffus was outstanding for us up front. He led the line well, was big and powerful – all the things we know he can do – and he scored a good goal too.
“I thought the introduction of George Green turned the game for us. He’s been injured for about three weeks and has trained the last two days. He was a bit disappointed not to start but I explained to him that I didn’t think he would last the 90 minutes.
“We used him as an impact player and he came on and had the impact we knew he could. He scored a great first goal and we were always confident he would score the free-kick.”
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