Everton’s hopes of regaining the Liverpool Senior Cup came to an end on Tuesday night after they were beaten by Marine.
A young Blues side lost 4-1 at the Marine Travel Arena in front of a bumper 1,466 crowd in Crosby. Leighton Baines selected a number of emerging talents from the club’s under-18s for the fixture.
Martin Sherif was one of those emerging talents selected as he led the line for the Blues, while Shae Cahill, the son of former Everton midfielder Tim, was also selected by Baines.
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However, it was the home side, who play in the Northern Premier League after winning promotion last season, who started the brighter and they twice went close to opening the scoring through Louis Britton and Andy Scarsbrick inside the opening 10 minutes.
Everton, to their credit, grew into the game and Sherif, who is in fine form for his side at the minute, forced Bailey Passant into a good save with his side’s first attack of the game, the Dutchman then fired into the side netting just moments later after latching onto Jacob Beamount-Clark’s pass.
But just three minutes after Sherif fired wide, the Blues found themselves behind. Scarsbrick’s cross from the right was only half cleared with Mark Howarth racing onto the ball and firing low and hard into the bottom corner of Jack Barrett’s net.
One then became two three minutes before the interval after a period of pressure from the hosts. A flicked ball in behind found Britton who made no mistake from close-range.
The hosts continued to dominate in the second-half and after Barrett had denied Britton and Josh Solomon-Davies, he was eventually beaten by substitute James Barrigan when he finished Sol Solomon's low cross at the back post.
Solomon then capped off a fine individual display when he scored his side's fourth of the night. The Marine No.10 profited from a slip by Luca Davies before firing past Barrett.
Sherif would net a late consolation for the Blues in stoppage time, but this night belonged to Marine, who will face either Bootle, Runcorn Linnets or Southport in the semi-finals.
Next up for Baines’ side is a trip to the Academy Stadium to take on Manchester City in the league on Saturday. The young Blues then welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to Finch Farm three days later.
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