Everton under-21s bow out of the EFL Trophy after a 4-2 loss to League 1 Lincoln City after a superb run that took them to the 3rd round of the competition.
Everton would go into the knockout stage in fine spirit after topping their group ahead of Morecombe, Harrogate Town and Hartlepool United whilst also remaining undefeated.
Despite looking down and out in their 2nd round tie with Mansfield Town, two stoppage-time strikes from Tom Cannon and Liam Higgins propelled the blues to a 3rd round trip to Lincoln City of League 1.
Everton would start the game on the back foot, failing to create many chances. And on the 33rd minute, the home side would take the lead through former Manchester United defender, Regan Poole.
However, Paul Tait would make a few changes to his side at half-time, with Francis Okoronkwo coming off the bench to replace Owen Barker and changing their formation to 4-4-2.
Just 3 minutes after coming off the bench, Okoronkwo would bring the toffees level after a superb team move.
Tom Cannon would complete the comeback just 100 seconds after that with a perfect finish into the top left corner keeping his side’s EFL Trophy dreams alive.
However, their lead would not last long, with Lincoln winning a penalty that was questioned by a fair few in the Everton camp, which was dispatched by Jack Diamond.
After bringing on some more reinforcements, Lincoln would finally retake the lead through Sean Roughan with 20 minutes to play.
Late on in the fixture, Cannon would miss a superb chance to take the game to penalties but it was not to be.
Diamond would grab his second and his team’s 4th in stoppage time, putting the tie to bed.
FT. It was another brave performance, but #EFCU21's journey in the #PapaJohnsTrophy comes to an end.
— Everton Academy (@EvertonAcademy) December 13, 2022
Great effort, Blues! 💙 pic.twitter.com/e7CuvTDbIX
Although it ended in heartache for the young toffees, they should definitely be proud of what they have achieved during this campaign.