Everton under-18s assistant coach Kieran Driscoll praised Martin Sherif after he scored a 20-minute hat-trick to rescue his side a point against Derby County.
The Blues’ under-18s found themselves 3-0 down to Jake Buxton’s side with just 20 minutes to go at Derby’s Moor Farm Training Ground on Saturday. However, a remarkable treble from Sherif helped extend his side’s unbeaten league run to five games.
Everton were under the stewardship of Driscoll for the game, with manager Leighton Baines absent after helping to oversee first-team training with Paul Tait this week following Frank Lampard’s sacking on Monday.
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Despite starting brightly with Sherif forcing Rams goalkeeper Josh Shattell into a smart save, the young Blues fell behind on the half-hour mark. Riley Moloney found Jaydan Davidson, who calmly finished into the bottom corner from inside the box.
Davidson doubled Derby’s advantage early in the second-half with a half-volley after a clearance fell to him on the edge of the area before he completed his hat-trick on the hour mark with another impressive strike.
But just when it looked like Everton were set to suffer their first league defeat since October, Sherif gave his side hope when he headed home after Jacob Beaumont-Clark crossed from the right.
The dynamic Dutch forward, who joined Everton at the age of 13, then further reduced the arrears from the penalty spot before he struck in the fourth minute of stoppage time to rescue his side a point.
Sherif has now scored seven goals in his past four outings and Driscoll believes the 16-year-old, and the rest of his team-mates, pounced once doubt started to creep into the minds of the Derby players.
“We have worked a lot on his back-to-goal play. Finding a way for him to have an impact when he isn’t getting a big supply of chances,” he told evertonfc.com.
"But scoring-wise, big credit to him today, he has been given three chances today and took all three of them.
“First half, we had a lot of the ball and possession, but like the Liverpool game, we didn’t quite have the right execution in the final third to create enough chances.
“Despite it being a dominant performance in the first half, we didn’t have enough quality. The start of the second half was similar, we started pretty poorly and concede the next two goals inside 15 minutes. We got on top again in the game though, get a good goal with Martin through a nice piece of play down the right. We got a lot of confidence from that.
“We get on the front foot, doubt crept in the Derby team and we took advantage.”
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