Dynamo Moscow 0-2 Everton Reserves

Everton deservedly secured third place in the 2011 VTB Lev Yashin Cup with a convincing 2-0 win over hosts Dynamo Moscow on Saturday afternoon. The Toffees missed a penalty and received a harsh sending off before a Conor McAleny brace secured an impressive 2-0 victory.

Everton's captain Jose Baxter saw his first-half spot-kick hit the crossbar after Joao Silva was hauled down inside the area. The scores were level at the break, and after the interval Everton were soon down to 10 men following the dismissal of Aristote Nsiala.

Everton showed their fighting spirit and a double from Conor McAleny was enough to earn a bronze medal, whilst simultaneously making sure that it was an awful weekend for the hosts.

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After seeing his charges lose narrowly to German side SC Freiburg on Friday, coach Alan Stubbs made four changes to his U21 line-up. Conor McAleny replaced Apostolos Vellios in attack, Luke Garbutt came in for Jake Bidwell at left-back, Jordan Barrow took up the central midfield role in place of John Lundstram and, in a late change, Shkodran Mustafi pulled out and was replaced by Aristote Nsiala in the heart of defence.

That meant that Everton lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Adam Davies; Tyias Browning, Aristote Nsiala, Shane Duffy, Luke Garbutt; Jordan Barrow, Jose Baxter (c), Adam Forshaw, Araz Abdullayev; Conor McAleny, Joao Silva.

The Everton substitutes were; Mateusz Taudul, Jake Bidwell, Shkodran Mustafi, John Lundstram, Anton Forrester, Apostolos Vellios and Hallam Hope.

Everton started the game brightly an Joao Silva was presented with the game's first real chance after being sent clean through. The Portuguese forward lifted the ball over the 'keeper, but his shot clipped the post and bounced agonisingly out of play. Conor McAleny also had a good chance in a lively opening spell from for the visitors.

Minutes later, and with Everton doing all the pressing, Silva was hauled down inside the area and the referee had no option but to award Everton a penalty. Jose Baxter stepped up, but drilled his effort against the crossbar and the sides remained level at the break.

At the interval Vellios was introduced as Everton pushed for a breakthrough goal, and recently-signed Polish goalkeeper Mateusz Taudul came on for his Everton debut.

Soon after the interval Everton found themselves down to 10 men after defender Aristote Nsiala received his marching orders. A yellow for an 'elbow' was quickly followed by another for dissent (from a Russian referee whom he could barely understand), and the centre-half was harshly sentenced to an early bath.

Undeterred, Everton kept pressing and no sooner had Nsiala finished running his bath had Everton taken the lead. Greek substitute Apostolos Vellios put through Conor McAleny, who lifted the ball over the 'keeper to put the 10 men in front.

McAleny notched his and Everton's second just a few minutes later to cap off an excellent display by the Young Toffees, who will return to England with the bronze medal.

Blues To Travel To Moscow

An Everton U-21 side featuring the likes of Jose Baxter, Joao Silva and Apostolos Vellios will prepare for the new season by participating in the VTB Lev Yashin Cup alongside SC Freiburg of Germany, OFK Beograd of Serbia and hosts Dynamo Moscow.

The squad, managed by Alan Stubbs and Andy Holden, will travel to the Russian Capital for the tournament, which takes place on the weekend of the 16th and 17th July. It will be held in honour of the former Soviet and Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Lev Yashin, considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper of all time.

Stubbs told evertonfc.com: “The football should be tough. It is worth remembering it will be our first competitive action of pre-season and we are up against players who are well into their seasons so, from a fitness point of view, we are going to be up against it.

“We’ll go there and enjoy it, there will be an edge to the football because of who we are playing and hopefully with it being a week into pre-season the lads will be desperate to get the ball out and play some games.”

“We are up against a top Russian team, a top-flight side from Germany and a top Serbian team. German sides are always of a certain quality, Serbia produce technically gifted players and you Dynamo are going to be good.

“It will be a challenge but I am quite optimistic really. I think we have got a good bunch of lads with a fair bit of quality and I am hopeful about both this trip and what the season may bring.”

“It is great to be involved in something like this and I think it shows the Club’s stature,” he added. “I think 10 years ago there would have been other clubs getting asked to go, so it is a feather in our cap that we have been asked to play against sides of this quality.”

McAleny Latest to Sign New Contract

18 year-old forward Conor McAleny has today put pen to paper and signed a professional deal with Everton.

The youngster is the latest to be awarded a new contract, after Adam Forshaw, James Wallace, Aristote Nsiala, John Lundstram and Tyias Browning all signed new deals in recent weeks.

McAleny joined Everton at the age of 11 and in 2008 the pacy striker became a full-time scholar. He was named as a substitute for the home fixture against Aston Villa last season due to a lengthy first-team injury list, but is yet to make his senior Everton debut. He also played a large role in helping the Everton under-18 side to win the national league title back in May.

The deal is a one-year extension and so will keep McAleny at Everton until June 2012. He told evertonfc.com "I'm buzzing to have signed a new contract, I just need to get my head down this season and hopefully I'll be rewarded with getting on the bench or maybe even getting on the pitch.

"I was on the bench last season which was a great experience and I learnt a lot from those two games. I've picked up loads this season and it's really helped me to progress.

"Stubbsy (Alan Stubbs, reserve team coach) has been great and so has Taff (Andy Holden, reserve team manager), they were both defenders so they can help me with what defenders don't like."