Malcolm Dawson writes….Pete Sixsmith’s half time text read “marginally less than inspiring”. I wasn’t there but Gus was and he took the opportunity to look at some of the younger players at the club. The starting line up lasted an hour and included Mannone, Giaccherini, Jones, Gomez, Brown and Wickham who can all expect to be in the manager’s thoughts in the forthcoming campaign and N’Diaye, Mavrias and Cabral who may be hoping to earn a place there. The other two, Diakite and Moberg Karlsson probably aren’t. The game ended up with a team comprised of players who will expect to feature more at Eppleton than Everton.
Gus was pleased with the young Lads as he tells M Salut and others via the post match e-mail.
Dear Colin,
The plan was to give the senior players an hour on the pitch and then give the youngsters the chance to show how much it means to them to be involved in the first team squad.
They were young, hungry players and after they came on with the game at 0-0 it opened up and there were plenty of chances; credit to [Mikael] Mandron who put the ball in the net.
He is a goal scorer; he’s shown that for years and he’s desperate to step up.
It’s a great experience for the youngsters, they’ve travelled with the team and been in the dressing room and they’re so keen to be involved and it just shows what can happen when they get their chance.
All the players have been training very hard, even this morning, so there were a few heavy legs out there.
I wasn’t too worried about the quality on the ball tonight, I just wanted the players to come through and gain more fitness.
I’m expecting more of the same tomorrow against Hartlepool as the players will be back in training tomorrow and the aim of these games is to prepare for the trip to Portugal.
Thanks for your support,
Gus Poyet