JACK RODWELL’S injury compounded a disappointing afternoon for Everton under-18s as the lost 1-0 to Sheffield United at Netherton on Saturday.
The England under-16s captain had to go off with a hamstring injury not long after the restart. And without the influential defender Neil Dewsnip’s side conceded with 20 minutes left.
Despite some recent excellent performances in the FA Premier Academy League Everton were not quite as fluent as they have been and although they had the majority of the possession, they didn’t create enough chances to get anything from the match.
Attackers John-Paul Kissock and Kieran Agard were both rested as they had featured in the reserves defeat at Manchester United earlier in the week although Agard did come on to try and rescue the match late on.
Rodwell had to go off with a hamstring strain and could be out for a couple of weeks. That means he may miss the trip to France with England at the weekend to compete in the prestigious Montaigu tournament.
Sheffield scored the winner with 20 minutes left when they took advantage of some slack defending to score from 20 yards past Everton keeper Jamie Jones.
Coach Dewsnip said: “First half we played fine and controlled the game without being a goal threat. It was back to that problem of the final third really.
“Jack Rodwell got injured after 55 minutes and I had to re-jig the team around and we lost our rhythm and our way.
“It was just going to be a 0-0 really. It wasn’t the best game of the season. But they broke away and scored and that was about as exciting as it got. It was a game of one chance really. It was a great goal, but we are disappointed.”
Everton will look to bounce back this Friday evening when they face Blackburn Rovers at Netherton (kick-off 7pm) before the break in Academy League fixtures for Easter.
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