Everton U21s breeze into the playoffs after Brentford red card | OneFootball

Everton U21s 4 - 2 Brentford U21s

Everton U21s blew away Brentford in the second half  on Friday evening at Walton Hall Park to progress to the PL2/PDL playoff semi-finals.

Everton fell behind before 10 minutes were up, and struggled to get back into the game until right before the break, when Luca Davis (44') got the equaliser.

Everton were handed a boost when the Brentford captain was shown a second yellow card for a reckless challenge a few minutes into the second half.

Everton created more chances as the half developed and got the go-ahead goal after an inviting cross from Braiden Graham was poked home by Demi Akarakiri (64').

Braiden Graham galloped off goalward and was unceremoniously upended for a clear penalty which he chipped nicely into the net (69').

And a fairly swift move upfield saw Braiden Graham (81') clip a fine first-time shot goalwards that somehow caught out the goalkeeper and bobbled into the corner of the goal.

The Young Blues had a couple more great chances to score but it was Brentford who scored what would be the last goal of the contest.

Everton U21s:  Pickford, Davis, Samuels-Smith, Welch, Thomas, Foster (84' Olayiwola), Pita (77' Matos), Bates, Benjamin (46' Catesby), Akarakiri (76' Boakye), Graham.

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Caught the last 20 minutes.

We could, and maybe should, have had another 2 or 3 but I believe Brentford were largely on top until the sending-off.

We are great going forward (at times it looked like Brentford must be 2 or 3 players down, not just the one) but we still seem too easy to penetrate and coughed up a far too-easy second for them, and then had a short spell of rather desperately defending corners.

Another 2 goals and 2 assists show what a well-rounded attacker Braiden Graham is. His second did rather go ‘through' the keeper but he's routinely doing the most important things like finding space and hitting the target.

Although I'd like to see him getting 15-20 minutes for the first team, I would worry that physically he could be at a severe disadvantage and therefore at risk.

Braiden has to be involved in pre-season games and it would be nice if he got some time in one or two of the remaining Premier League games.

Perhaps he might score the goal that sends Spurs down.

Alan J Thompson 7 Posted 02/05/2026 at 05:53:18

22 goals in a season of how many games! Ah, but Moyes probably thinks somebody has mistakenly hit the button twice.

While there's prize money for final position, would it do any harm to put him on the first team bench and even 10 or 15 minutes towards the end of a game?

Or would that mean having to desperately persuade Pickford and the back four to abandon the hoof and play out from the back, or even worse, play two up front!