Everton U21 4 Brentford U21 2: 10-man Bees knocked out of PDL play-offs in quarter-finals by Toffees | OneFootball

Brentford Under-21s were knocked out of the Professional Development League play-offs at the quarter-final stage as Everton Under-21s beat the 10-man Bees 4-2.

Luca Picotto opened the scoring in the seventh minute before Luca Davis levelled just before the end of a first-half in which Brentford dominated. Josh Stephenson was shown a second yellow card early after the restart and Ademide Akarakiri's strike and Braiden Graham's brace put the game beyond the young Bees. Ethan Laidlaw pulled one back late on but it was too little, too late.

The Bees started the game really strongly - Riley Owen's well-earned free-kick was glanced across goal by Laidlaw, needing only a touch to be converted in the second minute, but his flick-on evaded the arriving red and white shirts.

Sam Saunders' side deserved the lead that they found on seven minutes after dictating the intensity of the opening moments. Theo Mawene slid in Kyrie Pierre down the right, who cut the ball back perfectly to Picotto, converting calmly to make it 1-0.

On 13 minutes, the young Toffees' had their first sight of goal as Akarakiri arrived on the edge of the box, but Matas Klimas was brave to throw his body in front of the curling effort and block the ball.

Owen was a live-wire in the centre of the park for the west Londoners and had an effort from range on 27 minutes after drifting into a pocket of space, but his bending strike was too close to George Pickford.

On the half-hour mark, Picotto came as close as possible to adding his and Brentford's second of the evening. The left wing-back pressed from his own half in to the penalty area, where Reece Welch misjudged the flight of the ball. Pickford rushed out to meet Picotto, who struck the inside of both posts with his desperately unlucky effort.

Michel Boni then had a snap-shot half-volley from the edge of the area fly just wide of the right-hand post as the Bees pushed to make their control count. On 34 minutes, the striker should have doubled the advantage, snatching at a left-footed strike from close range when Pierre had earned him time with a clever knocked-down header.

Then, on the brink of half-time, Everton had an equaliser against the run of play. Premier League 2's third top-scorer Graham cut inside and whipped a ball to the back post, where Davis squeezed the ball past Julian Eyestone on the stretch. Saunders' side, despite dominating the majority of the first half, had to go in at the break level at 1-1.

The second-half began in a reverse manner, with Everton forcing the Bees to defend for the early minutes - Pierre blocked excellently five minutes after the restart to deny Shea Pita's fierce strike.

Caelan Avenell was the next to make a huge last-ditch challenge after Eyestone got a hand on a cross into no-man's-land, but substitute Joel Catebsy landed on the rebound. Avenell rushed across heroically to prevent what looked certain to be a strike at an empty net.

On 54 minutes, the game shifted again as Brentford skipper Stephenson was shown a second yellow after a lunging challenge and the west Londoners were reduced to 10 men.

10 minutes later and the Bees were behind. Graham found space on the left again to cross into the area, where Akarakiri got between Avenell and Eyestone to tap home and make it 2-1 to the home side.

Things went from bad to worse for Saunders' side as Avenell brought down Graham on 68 minutes and the referee pointed to the spot. The winger chipped his penalty down the middle to give Everton a two-goal lead.

Eyestone made a big save on 72 minutes as Pita slid in at the back post, but the Toffees had a fourth with eight to play as Graham swept past the Brentford keeper to make it 4-1 with his second.

Laidlaw pulled one back with a driven effort into the bottom-left corner to give the west Londoners a glimmer of hope on 87 minutes and Eyestone made a fantastic double save in stoppage time, but ultimately it wasn't to be as they were knocked out of the competition in the quarter-final.

The Bees now finish their season with the fourth annual Robert Rowan Invitational on Monday 18 May (7pm kick-off BST, as they welcome PSG Under-21s to Gtech Community Stadium, raising money for Heart of West London.

Everton: Pickford, Davis, Samuels-Smith, Welch, Thomas, Foster (Olayiwola 84), Pita (Matos 77), Bates, Benjamin (Catesby 46), Akarakiri (Boakye 77), Graham

Subs: Patrick

Booked: Davis 83

Brentford: Eyestone, Klimas, Picotto, Avenell, Stephenson, Grey, Pierre, Owen, Boni, Mawene (Redknapp 75), Laidlaw

Subs: Wolfheimer, Hanson, Ogungbemi, Trialist A

Booked: Stephenson 39, Avenell 54, Mawene 56

Sent off: Stephenson 54

Sam Saunders proud of his side's season despite play-off exit

Sam Saunders said his side didn't give up, despite going down to 10-men as they fell to defeat to Everton Under-21s this evening.

"The commitment, quality and application have given us all year has been immense, but of course we are disappointed tonight," said Saunders.

"It hurts more because the game was ours; the first half we were absolutely outstanding and played some magnificent stuff. We should have been 3-0 up.

"We needed to be more ruthless. You're never going to get away with it or dominate a game for 90 minutes against Category One teams, so you have to take your chances.

"We let the game get away from us, but down to 10-men, the boys have given me everything, they've crawled off the pitch. I'm immensely proud, just disappointed because I think we had a really big chance to go all the way in this competition."