Welcome back to Goodison for just the 3 games this month.
Derby, Tottenham, Wolves – AHA (Maybe Morten should be the title picture). Derby are on the up under Stevie G (since Jan 2024) – In game he went Rangers – West Brom – Southampton – Hearts before getting Derby promoted in his 2nd full season.
Matt Harris was 3rd in the EPL Player of the Month behind Mason Greenwood (Brighton) and Michael Obafemi (Watford).
Of the kiddies Kris De Moor also came 3rd in the EPL Young Player of the Month behind Steve Fraser (Man U) and James O’Brien (Derby).
Enzo Lacoste out for a month with a twisted ankle – bit of a bugger as he’s been doing really well.
I’m a B with the board – They are concerned about the daylight robbery of a loss versus Liverpool and the 2-1 versus Arsenal – Seriously? Squad dynamics are Good/Very Good/Very Good – looking for Cohesion to start rising.
1st November – Monday Night Football – Leicester and Norwich play out a 0-0. They sit 10th and 11th.
Our U23’s lost 1-0 to Derby.
14 of the lads have been called up to International duty.
Our U18’s are through to the 1st Knockout Round of the U19’s Champions Cup with a 4-0 aggregate win over Beitar Jerusalem. A 2-0 win in Israel (Scorers Stephen Walsh (18yo DC) and Sean McCulloch) get us into the next stage.
An onto the 6th November and a trip to Derby. It’s Chelsea v Man U in the 12:30
First our U18’s trounce Liverpool 7-0 in the U18 Premier Cup – Goals from Garreth Cross, Stephen Walsh, Joseph Thornton (17yo AML), Ryan Scott (16yo DR) and Jamie Moncur with a hattrick.
So to 12:30. Chelsea 5 Man U 0!!!!!!!!! The same Chelsea we beat 3-1. Mad. Liverpool can go 6 points clear with a win.
6th November 2027 – Derby County (A) – English Premier League
We travel south to Derby for an important game versus a decent side just below us in the form table (We are 4th, thy are join 5th). Like Chelsea we are going man-for-man. Stevie G v Andy P. Lets do this.
FT Derby 1 (McTominey 13) Everton 2 (Harris 59, Zinchenko 78) Att 32,983 (3,000 Away)
A cagey start (Yes, it is raining), but Derby strike in the 13th minute – an Everton attack broken down, Derby move forward well and McTominay finishes from close in. Pretty poor from the lads. Everton with plenty of the ball, but no real chances as we reach the half hour. 36th minute – Felliphe crashes a shot against the post. 1-0 Derby at the break – I’d say we are on top but we are lacking chances. End to end football at the start of the 2nd half, Prescott with a shot well saved by Lumley in the Derby net. Don’t think this is happening today – 58th minute, Prescott hits both posts… but we do equalise within a minute – Harris with the final finish after a gorgeous move. Derby have had 2 Red injuries today as well. Can we push on and win this? And we take the lead!!!! 78th minute, another gorgeous move finishes with a Zinchenko blunderbuss from 12 yards – Half-Back Valdivia with the assist. Derby pushing on now. But we hang on! We win 2-1, a nice fight-back. The match stats suggest dominance.
The 5:30 ends Man City 7 Villa 0… Liverpool now 2 games clear at the top.
And there are 2 Sunday games before the International break.
We host Spurs after the break, which will be an early-season 6-pointer for European spots. Arsenal climb into 2nd. I will do a player round-up of the internationals at the end of the break.
Our U23’s lose 1-0 to Brighton.
And then Our U23’s beat League 2 Fylde 7-0 in the Leasing.com trophy (3 wins from 3 and we qualify for the knockouts) – Steven Guest and a Double Hattrick(!) from 17yo AML Sean McCulloch! 1.5* CA 4* PA.
Our U18’s won 12-0 in a Friendly versus non-league Highfield Rangers. Goals from Stephen Walsh, Henry Corner, Paul Crawford, Declan Garrick, 2 from Sean McCulloch and a double-hattrick, this time from Eddie Nketiah.
Our U23’s beat Man U 3-1 – goals from Alan Short and a brace from Eddie Nketiah.
I asked about foreign affiliates. I got the following back:
- SIPG (China)
- Suwon (South Korea)
- Okayama (Japan – Kashima Antlers)
- Higashiosaka Rosa (Japan – Kawasaki Frontale)
- Brisbane Roar (Australia)
I’m going for China 🙂 It will cost £132k/annum but will be worth it just to get into China.
So to the internationals:
- Olexandr Zinchenko (Ukraine). 3-0 W v New Zealand. 74 mins, 6.8. 2-1 W v Romania. 71 mins, 6.5. 2-0 W v Latvia/ 45 mins, 6.9.
- Matteo Rossi (Belgium – 1st Cap). 1-0 W v South Korea. 9 mins.
- Kris De Moor (Belgium). 1-0 W v South Korea. 75 mins, 6.8. 7-0 W v San Marino. 28 mins. 6.7.
- Edon Zhegrova (Kosovo). 6-0 W v Andorra. 90 mins, 2 goals, 9.5. Bruised Shin (1-2 days). 0-0 v Poland. 72 mins, 6.6.
- Jamal Lewis (N. Ireland). 2-1 W v Croatia. 90 mins, 6.8. N. Ireland Qualify for Euro 2028. 1-0 L v Serbia. 90 mins, 6.6.
- Joe Aribo (Nigeria). 3-0 W v Eritrea. 90 mins, 7.1. 11-0 W v Eritrea. 31 mins, 6.8.
- Matt Harris (Germany). 2-0 W v Russia. 69 mins (Noice), 6.8. Germany Qualify for Euro 2028. 1-0 L v Spain. 4 mins.
- Dario Maresic (Austria). 2-1 W v Slovakia. 90 mins, 7.2.
- Mitchell Douglas (England U21). 1-0 W v Hungary. 22 mins, 6.9. 4-0 W v Kazakhstan. 22 mins, 6.8.
- Rafael Munoz (Spain U21). 4-0 W v Moldova. 90 mins, 1 goal, 8.2. 3-2W v N. Ireland. 90 mins, 6.8.
- Vaclav Prochazka (Czech U21). 10-1 W v Luxembourg. 90 mins, 1 goal, 9.2. 2-0 L v Russia. 90 mins, 6.6.
- Tiberiu Hagi (Romania U21). 5-1 W v North Macedonia. 12 mins, 1 goal, 7.4. 6-0 W v Gibraltar. 45 mins, 7.5.
Our U23’s beat Leeds 2-1 in the U23 International Cup, goals again from Alan Short & Eddie Nketiah.
And our U18’s beat Leicester 2-0 – Goals from Garreth Cross and Ryan Scott.
So to 20th November – Spurs at home. We are one of the 3pm’s – It’s Arsenal v Chelsea at 12:30… It finishes 2-2, Arsenal with a Hector Bellarin 88th minute equaliser. Win today and we go 4th!!!
20th November 2027 – Tottenham Hotspur (H) – English Premier League
We welcome a Spurs side currently in 8th, top players Diego Lainez on loan from Barca (27 – IRL at Betis), Troy Parrott, now 25, a newgen called Silvio Luiz and Sir Harold Kane, now 34, worth about £18M apparently. They have a good squad, but manager Paulo Sousa (He’s Spurs’ 8th manager this save so far) – only averaging about a year, the Daniel Levy effect. Its another biggie today. And again its man-for-man – 4-1-2-3 v 4-2-3-1.
FT Everton 2 (Prescott 24, 69) Spurs 0 Att 48,445 (3,000 Away)
A quiet enough start, The one highlight early showing Spurs being comfortable on the ball. Then the breakthrough – 24th minute, Prescott completely unmarked volleying in a Felliphe corner from 6 yards. No defending at all. As we approach half-time Spurs are suffering condition-wise after the international break. Our wingbacks Zinchenko and Munoz will only go 60 I think. 1-0 Everton at the break. On the hour, should be 2-0, Harris 1-on-1 straight at the keeper after intercepting a pass with Spurs messing about and trying to play it out from the back. We look really good. And it’s 2-0 in the 69th – Identikit goal, Prescott, this time with a half-volley from a Harris corner stealing in at the back post, unmarked. Kick-off highlight… Should have been a Prescott hattrick, another fine 1-on-1 save from Ellery Balcombe (on loan at Burton Albion from Brentford IRL). Time running down. And its all over. 2-0 Everton and another dominating performance. And that’s 5-straight 🙂
And a big game in the 5:30 kick-off – 19th place Watford hold Man City! The top 3 are 2 games above us currenyly (And we’ve lost to all 3 of them – our only 3 losses).
Just Wolves (15th) left this month at Molineux in 7 days. They play in the West Mids Derby at West Brom in the 4:30 on Sunday after Villa host Liverpool.
Liverpool striding away with it, beating bottom team Villa 5-1. And West Brom beat Wolves 3-2 – A 34yo Romelu Lukaku (155 caps for Belgium, 84 goals) with the equaliser before 28yo Jonathan Leko (IRL at West Brom too) got the winner.
Monday-Night football – Leicester beat Derby 3-0.
Our U23’s beat Fulham 3-0 – goals from Mathieu Renault, Eddie Nketiah and James Errington (Who can’t get a game because Bradders is on a mad one at the moment.
I’ve got the “x Showing Pleasing Progress” news item – its Vaclav Prochazka, our 18yo Czech Utility player. 20 Flair 🙂
Our U18’s beat Gillingham 5-1 in the FA Youth Cup 3rd Round – Sean McCulloch, Ryan Scott (2) and Joseph Thornton (2) with the goals.
We get to the last match-day of November – Friday night football has Leeds v West Brom – Leeds 1 West Brom 3. West Brom now 8th.
The 12:30 is Liverpool v Bournemouth. We are 1 of 4 3pm starts. Liverpool 3-0, Newgen Luan Cesar with a hat-trick. And so we make the trip down the M6 and M5 to Wolverhampton.
27th November 2027 – Wolves (A) – English Premier League
Wolves, currently in 15th, have Morgan Gibbs-White rated as their best player (Also at Wolves IRL) and our scouts aren’t very bothered by the squad as a whole. Abel Ferreira is the manager – IRL he’s in Brazil with Palmeiras; still the Portuguese aspect at Wolves, though the squad only has 2 Portuguese players. More domination please.
FT Wolves 0 Everton 5 (Felliphe 28, Harris 41, 45, De Moor 81, Zhegrova 88) Att 30,677 (3,000 Away)
Really quite quiet early on – Wolves defending well. But we take the lead coming to the half hour. Felliphe dispossesses Diallo wide on the right near the half-way line in the Everton half, runs it all the way and slams past Muric in the Wolves net from 12 yards. 1-0 Everton. Really open after the goal, end-to-end and we go 2-0 up in the 41st minute – Matt Harris with a fine header from a Felliphe cross. Beautiful boys. Felliphe is really starting to come good. And it’s 3 just before the break. Harris again, with a half volley after a Munoz cross after fine tackling and a break. Superb work. 3-0 at the break. A strange one at Carrow Road – Norwich 3-1 up v Man Utd! And they were 3-0 up by the 23rd minute! Back to Molineux, Matt Harris gets a bruised thigh just before the hour – Zhegrova on. We get our 4th in the 81st minute, Kris De Moor given too much time, firing home from the edge of the area. 88th minute, its a 5-star performance, Edon Zhegrova with a nice header from a Dodo cross, his first minutes since his sports hernia. Kick-off highlight.. Wolves blaze over. It finishes 5-0 – a great end to the month.
Norwich do indeed hold on to put a big dent in Man Utd’s title aspirations. Arsenal can go 2nd with a win on Sunday. We definitely seem to be part of a top-6 – it’s whether we can outpoint Chelsea and Man City over the next 20 games or so as to whether we get UCL or UEL next season.
Matt Harris out for 3-5 days with a bruised thigh. He will miss Leicester in mid-week (1st December).
Just a few days left in a Sunny November for Everton before a (relatively) mad December.
Our U23’s drew 0-0 with Norwich in the U23 Premier Division Cup.
We’ve received £850k as part of the Alexander Schlager (31yo GK) – Levante move in 2026 as he’s now played 50 League games for them.
And we have the FA Cup 3rd Round Draw…
An interesting one – we go to the London Stadium on New Years Day to play top-of-the-Championship West Ham. Expecting a tough game.
Two games on Sunday 28th in the EPL:
Arsenal miss the chance to go 2nd losing to now-14th placed Brighton at the AMEX, and Spurs bounce back from last weekend with a 2-0 win over our next opponents Leicester, who we play in 3 days time. Just 4 points now between us and 2nd!
We get 4 players in the EPL Team of the Week – Dario Maresic, Matt Harris, Kris De Moor and Jefferson Felliphe.
And with that we end November 2027.
A fine month, we will want to keep up our winning ways in the 7 games this month. The Chelsea/Man City games look tasty, especially as we have them both at Goodison. See you soon for a quick start to the end of 2027.