Stoke City U18s 1-2 Everton U18s

Goals from striking duo Chris Long and Anton Forrester (above) meant Everton leapfrogged opponents Stoke City in the Academy League table.

Long, who played 45 minutes for the reserves in midweek, struck shortly before half-time and Anton Forrester doubled the lead after the break with a 20-yard effort.

The Potters pulled a goal back through Michael Clarkson but Everton held on for a 2-1 victory.

Everton: Fitzgibbon, Higgins, Heneghan, Dier (c), Barrow, Grant, Molyneux, Jones, Forrester, Long, Hope.

Subs: Taudul, Green, Shannon (Grant).

Stoke City: Bachmann, Roberts-Nurse, Parry, O'Reilly, Hall, Richardson, Clarkson, Dawson (c), Scott, Musungu, Nardiello.

Subs: Richards, Eve, Sinclair, Debayo, Rossi (Roberts-Nurse 89).

Elsewhere, Everton U16s beat their Stoke counterparts by a goal to nil. The match-winning goal was scored by Courtney Duffus, recently signed from Cheltenham Town along with his brother Tyrone, and assisted by Danny O'Brien.

Southport 2-0 Everton XI

An Everton XI was well beaten by Southport this afternoon in the final of the 2011 Liverpool Senior Cup as goals from Karl Ledschan and former Everton youngster John Paul Kissock handed the Sandgrounders a deserved 2-0 victory.

The Everton side was Mateusz Taudul, Tyias Browning, Shane Duffy, Shkodran Mustafi, Jake Bidwell, Jordan Barrow, Adam Forshaw, Jose Baxter, John Lundstram, Luke Garbutt and Joao Silva.

The Blues were behind in just 90 seconds, as a long throw-in was not dealt with by the Everton defence and turned home by Ledschan. Southport doubled their advantage on eight minutes as the outstanding Kissock curled in a free-kick from 30 yards.

Everton, without Conor McAleny and Apostolos Vellios who are in America with the first team, failed to recover from the two early goals.

Anton Forrester, Adam Forshaw and Adam Thomas all came on to try to salvage the result but all Everton's efforts were in vain.

It was a below-par performance which ended in Southport running out comfortable winners. Captain Jose Baxter tweeted: "For anyone who came to watch us today I can only apologise because we were awful."

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.

* * *

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.

Everton Reserves 0-1 SC Freiburg

An U-21 Everton side lost by a solitary goal to SC Freiburg in the VTB Lev Yashin Cup in Moscow this evening, and will now face hosts Dynamo Moscow in tomorrow's 3rd/4th place play-off.

Adam Davies donned the gloves in goal for Everton and was protected by a back four of Tyias Browning, Shkodran Mustafi, Shane Duffy and Jake Bidwell. Captain Jose Baxter lined up in midfield alongside John Lundstram, Adam Forshaw and surprise inclusion Araz Abdullayev. There was a Portu-Greek combination up front as Joao Silva partnered Apostolos Vellios in attack.

New signing Mateusz Taudul was named on the bench and was joined by Aristote Nsiala, Conor McAleny, Jordan Barrow, Hallam Hope, Luke Garbutt and Anton Forrester.

Azerbaijani winger Abduallayev, 19, was invited along to the tournament by Everton, who last year secured first option on the Neftchi Baku player - subject to the youngster being able to obtain a work permit.

Except for the official Everton updates on Twitter - which were hampered by internet problems - there was not a hint of coverage of the match on the internet.

From the little I could gather, however, Everton started well and centre-half Mustafi was denied by a great save from the Freiburg goalkeeper. However, the Blues fell behind just after the half-hour mark to a 25-yard strike from Freiburg's Erich Sautner.

Despite some positive play from skipper Baxter, and a penalty appeal from Hallam Hope, 1-0 was how it stayed as the young squad were unable to find a second-half equaliser.

In the other game in the 4-team tournament, Serbian side OFK Belgrad defeated hosts Dynamo Moscow 3-1, meaning that the final will be contested between OFK Belgrad and Freiburg, whilst Everton will face Dynamo Moscow in the 3rd/4th place play-off.

Those fixtures will be played tomorrow - be sure to check back then to see how the Blues fare.

Academy Youngsters Graduate

Nine of Everton's Academy starlets have officially become full-time Everton players. Mason Springthorpe, Jasper Johns, Tom Molyneux, Mateusz Taudul (above), Ibou Touray, George Waring, Chris Long, Matthew Pennington and Connor Grant are now registered as Everton players and will work alongside the first team at Finch Farm.

Academy boss Ray Hall spoke to evertonfc.com, saying: "Today is an important day for the Academy. It is a long journey for these boys - for some of them it started at seven years old. This is the pinnacle of the first part if you will and the goal of one day playing for our first team is a big step closer.

"The manager came down and spoke to the boys and that was fantastic for them and you could see the impact his words had. They are fine young men but the hard work starts now."

The nine players include Mateusz Taudul (above), the Polish goalkeeper who you can find out more about here, and George Waring, who scored the winner as Everton defeated Fulham in the U18 National League final back in May.

Mateusz Taudal to Become First Summer Signing

According to reports from Poland, Everton have made their first signing of the 2011 Summer transfer window - a 16 year old Polish goalkeeper by the name of Mateusz Taudul. Erm... Champions League here we come then!

The news seems to have emanated from Polish sport website sport.onet.pl where, with the help of Google Translate, one can see that the goalkeeper will sign for Everton on July 1st.

Taudul, who will turn 17 in November, honed his skills at the SMEs Szamotuły Goalkeeper School and has made appearances at U15 and U16 level for Poland. After having trials with Blackburn, he played for Everton in the 2010 Future Champions tournament in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (above).

On his profile on goalkeeper.pl, Taudul says "football is not a matter of life or death, it is definitely something much more important. I'm impulsive, sometimes I react more quickly than I think. I say what I think. I try to be myself."

The website also charts the player's youth career and it shows he has played for Piast Białystok (2001), MOSP Jagiellonia Bialystok (2002-2008), Msp Szamotuły (2009-2011) and Legnica Copper (2011). So now you know.

So our first signing of the Summer is not Klose, Ba or Callejon, but a 16 year old Polish goalkeeper who has only played at an amateur level in his homeland and will probably never play for Everton before being shipped off to Preston for a nominal fee. Ah well, good luck to the lad...