Pat Lyons hailed a brilliant performance from Derby County’s Under-23s after they struck twice in the last 15 minutes to stun Everton at Goodison Park.
The Rams ran out 3-1 winners on Merseyside thanks to late goals from Max Bird and Lewis Walker, after Luke Thomas’ opener had been cancelled out by Shayne Lavery’s header.
Derby were pinned back for large periods of the game but they showed immense desire and mental strength to change the course of the game late on, and Lyons was thrilled with the display.
He told dcfc.co.uk: “It doesn’t get any better, the lads put in a brilliant performance, every single one of them, the substitutes had a big impact.
“Away from home at Goodison Park, it was really pleasing and it’s been a great few weeks for us, but the difference is now that we’re getting the results.
“We showed really good character to get a goal out of nothing, but when they stepped up, we scored two more quick goals to take the game away from them.”
Most impressive for Lyons was the way that Derby stuck to their gameplan under intense pressure in the second half.
He explained: “We had to match them physically and we played off Walker really well.
“We had some good opportunities in transition where we played forward quickly on the counter-attack, which was really pleasing because it was what we set out to do.
“The back four were excellent, they defended the big lads really well and restricted them to minimal efforts on goal.
“They were great finishes and there were some really good final balls.”
Some of the younger players in the squad also played an impressive key role, in particular Morgan Whittaker, who came off the bench to play a part in both of the late goals.
Lyons said: “Morgan did well and set the two goals up, it was pleasing in so many aspects, but the biggest thing was the physical side.
“We came here with five Under-18s in the squad against a very physical Everton team.
“We had a young team, but we showed good aspects in terms of being difficult to beat.”
