11^th December 2015

3^rd Round – Home to Aston Villa

Lost 0-1

Match Report from Toffeeweb

Everton: O'Loughlin, Yates, Feeney, Bainbridge {c}, Connolly, Baningime (57' Lavery), Walsh, Donohue, Broadhead (80' Holland), Evans (46' Dowell), Brewster.
Subs not used: Jones, Yarney. Scorers: None

Everton Under-18s bowed out of the FA Youth Cup in the Third Round after a late goal gave Aston Villa Under-18s a 1-0 win at Goodison Park.

Everton almost took the lead in the 28th minute through Delial Brewster, but the striker could only hit the post with Viktor Johansson beaten. Just minutes later, Morgan Feeney was forced to clear off the line from a rebound after a Villa effort was saved by Ciaran O'Loughlin.

At the interval, Kieran Dowell was introduced as the young Blues looked for an opening, and he almost made an instant impact eight minutes in to the half but fired just over the bar. Dowell then linked up well with fellow substitute Lavery on the hour mark to tee up Brewster and send him through one-on-one with Johansson, but the Villa keeper won the battle.

Everton were keeping the pressure on and 10 minutes later Brewster struck the woodwork again, this time hitting the crossbar after getting on the end of Dowell's cross. Just as the match looked to be heading for a stalemate, in the dying seconds of the 90 minutes Villa dealt the Blues a sucker-punch. Hepburn-Murphy managed to get his head on an in-swinging free kick  and convert the ball beyond O'Loughlin into the Everton net.