Match Report Preston v Everton! Lindstrom & O’Brien Debut Goals: View

Preston 0-3 Everton

Everton took the 35 mile drive up the M56 and M6 to meet their fourth opponent of the 2024-25 preseason at Preston North End. The preseason has seen lots of changes in the squad and several senior players missing for a variety of reasons.

Preston were playing their final preseason match before the Championship season kicks off next week. Preston have played Salford City, beating them 2-0 and also came away 2-1 winners against Italian Serie A side Fiorentina last weekend. They begin their Championship campaign on Friday night against Sheffield United.

Team News

Another match and another shuffling of the pack. Vitalii Mykolenko and James Tarkowski were back from injury. Jarrad Branthwaite remained out injured and today there was no Seamus Coleman, so Ashley Young looked set to start on the right.

Gana Gueye also returned from injury with Tim Iroegbunam alongside him. The big news was the debut for Jesper Lindstrom in the Doucoure role behind DCL with Harrison and McNeil out wide. The bench included Jake O’Brien and Iliman Ndiaye.

Coventry had played three times this summer before today, opening their preparations for the new season with a goalless draw against Getafe, before recording a 3-1 victory over Stevenage. Not only did former Everton striker Ellis Simms lead the line for Coventry City against his former club this evening but the hosts also had another ex-Blue, Jake Bidwell in their ranks.

Match Review

The teams took a moment to reflect on the victims of the Southport stabbings before Will Keane kicked off the match. It was a very slow start for both teams as they settled into the match. Perhaps the glorious sunshine had something to do with the lack of pace. It took almost ten minutes before Everton got forward with Harrison and Calvert Lewin working well together before the ball was put back to Mykolenko whose shot was straight at the keeper.

Jesper Lindstrøm had his first run at the Preston back line but he was quickly swarmed by the lilywhites. Everton were starting to control the play and an alert play by Calvert Lewin who squared the ball to Iroegbunam who shot narrowly wide.

Everton looked like they were up for it when a quick break from the back saw Gueye get the ball to McNeil who took a couple of lovely touches and lobbed the ball over the backline to put Calvert Lewin into the open. The big man was taken down by Preston’s defender and a penalty was given. Calvert Lewin stepped up and calmly dispatched the ball into the corner.