Everton U21s 1-2 Dev Squad FT

74 mins Goal! The lead is a shortlived one however, as Everton's Luke Garbutt takes aim from range and rockets a shot into the top right hand corner of the Hammers net. 1-1.

73 mins That Everton crossbar has seen plenty of action and it denies the Hammers for a third time as Elliot Lee arcs a right footed effort from 20 yards over Taudul's dive but also against the top of the bar.

68 mins GOAL! There it is. West Ham finally have the goal they crave, albeit one in unconventional circumstances. Callum Driver picked up the ball on the right wing and fired the ball over towards the box. Whether he meant it as a cross or a shot only he will know, but either way it doesn't matter as the ball sails over keeper Taudel and ends up in the net. 1-0 Hammers!

65 mins Have Everton weathered that storm? They look to go on the attack themselves and right back Kenny is in an advanced position, as he managed to do effectively early in the first half, but has run offside in an attempt to reach Grant's clipped ball forward.

60 mins West Ham keep Everton penned back following that corner and Moncur's shot is charged down inside the area, before falling to Turgott, who brings a good save from Taudel with a stinging shot. West Ham sense a goal and need to keep their foot on the pedal now.

58 mins The visitors are upping the tempo again and a lovely move involving Lee and Moncur ends with the latter's cross being hacked behind for a corner. Moncur's first delivery is headed behind again, his second finds Lletget, whose shot is blocked, and his third is well headed clear by Pennington. Still no way through.

56 mins The Hammers make their first change of the evening as Kieran Sadlier replaces Dylan Tombides.

55 mins So, so unlucky from Lletget. He pings a wonderful left-footed shot from 25 yards that is arrowing towards goal, only to strike the crossbar and bounce out to safety. The keeper Taudul was beaten all ends up there, and that is of course the second time West Ham have struck the woodwork tonight. Still 0-0.

53 mins It's end-to-end again and Blair Turgott drills goalwards with his right foot from a couple of yards outside the area. The shot skims across the surface, but straight at keeper Taudel, who watches the ball into his hands and holds on safely.

52 mins A lovely bit of skill from the Everton midfielder Conor Grant takes him away from Whitehead in midfield. He advances towards the Hammers box before passing to Long, who takes a touch out of his feet and blasts goalwards from 20 yards. Spiegel gets behind it though, to bat down and grab once he drew the sting from the effort.

50 mins Everton are enjoying a good spell of possession at the moment. It's a similar start to the first period, with both teams looking to impose themselves, and both having opportunities to do so.

46 mins West Ham have the first attack of the second period and after both Elliot Lee and Seb Lletget are held up on the edge of the box, George Moncur sidesteps the referee before lashing a left-footed shot a couple of feet too high. Encouraging start.

8.01pm Back underway for the second half, with Everton in possession from the off.

Half-time: It's still 0-0 at the break, although the Hammers really should be in the lead having been given that chance from 12 yards two minutes before the interval. Everton started well, but the Hammers gradually became the better team and a 1-0 lead would have been just about fair. However, Moncur wasn't quite on target with his spot kick, firing it against the bar and an interesting second period awaits. Join us again in 15 minutes for the rest of the action.

43 mins The Hammers have a penalty as referee Anthony Tankard points to the spot after Pennington raised a hand to block Lee's header back across goal following a Driver cross. It was a clear handball, but the Hammers cannot take advantage as Moncur smashes the spot kick against the bar with keeper Taudel diving the other way.

40 mins Everton move forward with their first attack of menace for a while. The Hammers are able to cope with it, despite a couple of less than convincing clearances, as Junior loops a shot harmlessly over from 25 yards.

38 mins George Moncur makes a threatening break for the visitors as he passes wide for Turgott and looks for the return as it is fizzed into him. Defender Browning is able to get in between Moncur and the ball following the West Ham man's touch, though, and shepherds the ball back to his keeper. Good defending to repel a dangerous moment there.

36 mins The floodlights are flickering into life over on the far side now as the light begins to fade. It's a fine evening here in the north west though so no complaints on that front.

32 mins Ruddock is heavily involved again in a Hammers attack as he exchanges passes with Moncur before laying wide for Turgott on the wing. His cross is just behind Lee however and travels through to right back Kenny to clear. West Ham are on top of the contest now though and looking the more likely.

31 mins Pelly Ruddock clearly enjoys to bulldoze his way forward from the back on occasion. Everton can't stop him as he gets going and reaches the edge of the box before shooting for goal, although he can't quite find his range and the ball flashes wide of the near post.

26 mins The Hammers are growing into the contest now and Taudel has to adjust his feet well to prevent them from taking the lead. It would have been a fortunate one as Whitehead's long range effort took a massive deflection off Lletget, looping up and changing direction as it headed towards the Everton net. Taudul had already begun to move to cover the original shot, but stepped back well to tip over.

25 mins That's the best chance for the away side so far. Blair Turgott gets in down the right hand side and waits, and waits until the right option appears. He finds Lletget, who controls, spins and shoots for goal from ten yards, only for Junior to get in the way for the hosts. Not top dissimilar to the technique showed by Joe Cole for the opening got against Cardiff at the weekend, that. 

23 mins Lundstram drops his position to outside the area this time to find possession and he eyes an opportunity to shoot, but can only direct his effort straight at Spiegel in the Hammers goal who makes an easy save.

22 mins Everton aren't finding quite so much joy at present, and Grant overhits his attempted pass to Lundstram inside the area. It rolls behind for a goal kick and West Ham are in possession again.

19 mins Time for a Hammers corner now as Turgott's cross from the right wing is deflected behind by Garbutt. Moncur plays it short to Lee and after the ball seems to get stuck in the area, Everton knock it clear to Tombides, whose shot is well palmed away by goalkeeper Taudul.

17 mins Everton right back Kenny is getting forward at every opportunity and his cross from the by-line spins off Potts and behind for a corner. Grant's first flag kick is thumped behind by Ruddock for a second and this one needs to be scrambled clear with a hit of desperation, but it's still 0-0.

15 mins Pelly Ruddock lines up a shot for the visitors after advancing to receive a throw in. He takes the ball forward and lets fly, but his effort is blocked by the first defender and flies square for right back Jonjoe Kenny to clear.

13 mins An entertaining opening here at Southport. Both sides have enjoyed possession in their opponent's territory, but Everton have just started to control proceedings in the last five minutes and the Hammers have to be careful.

11 mins Dan Potts is lucky to get away with that. He takes an air kick and barely makes contact with his swing as John Lundstram's misdirected pass travels towards him inside the area. Kenny picks up the pieces to shoot for the hosts and his rising drive needs a fingertip save from Spiegel to divert it over the top for a corner. A bit of a let off for the Hammers there.

9 mins It's a carbon copy of the last action as Hope picks up possession in the left of the penalty box and opens his body to aim for the far corner. This one is a better effort but it's still off target and Spiegel isn't called into action.

6 mins The end-to-end nature of the game continues early on and the ball breaks to Hallam Hope on the edge of the box for the game's first attempt on goal. He looks to curl towards the top corner, but gets too much loft on it and the ball easily clears Spiegel's crossbar.

5 mins It's a very open start to the contest and George Moncur pings a super 50-yard ball out to Elliot Lee in the left channel. Dylan Tombides is running gamely to offer support square, but Lee opts to take on his man and is table to get his cross over from a tight angle. Keeper Mateusz Taudul is able to claim as Blair Turgott lurks, but maybe Lee would have been better off laying the ball to Tombides outside the box. A bright attack from the visitors nevertheless.

3 mins Everton launch their first attack of the evening. It comes down the Hammers left and ends with Luke Garbutt swinging over a cross. John Lundstram tries to attack it at the far post, but Dan Potts is positioned well to get his body between the ball and his man and guide the cross away from danger.s

2 mins The Hammers begin on the front foot and George Moncur finds space in the right hand side of the penalty area. He looks to knock square but an Everton foot cuts the cross out.

7pm The theme from Z Cars fades out and it's time for kick-off. The Hammers get us underway, kicking away to my right in the first half.

6.59pm The Hammers are in their claret and blue shirts tonight, mixing it with sky blue shorts tonight, due to Everton wearing white shorts with their usual blue shirts.

6.57pm The teams are on their way out from the tunnel with the Hammers led by skipper Callum Driver. Kick-off is now only moments away.

6.55pm Check out our gallery from the warm-up here at Southport over on our Facebook page here.

6.50pm Before we get underway at the Merseyrail Community Stadium this evening, why not enjoy highlights of the Dev Squad's fine win over Aston Villa over on West Ham TV. You'll find all the action here

6.47pm The Hammers took on Everton at this level in the first phase of their season last year. That involved home and away games against the Toffees and both were positive experiences for the young Hammers.

They travelled to Everton's Finch Farm training ground almost a year ago to the week and returned home with a convincing 5-1 win. George Moncur, Rob Hall, Blair Turgott and Paul McCallum were all on target, and the Hammers backed that up with a 1-0 win at home, courtesy of Elliot Lee's header.

I'm sure U21s boss Nick Haycock would take either of those outcomes tonight!

6.35pm Both sets of players are going through their warm-up routines with kick-off approaching. Here's a pic of the Hammers players limbering up.

6.15pm Everton's squad includes two players who have experience from the Football League from loans at Doncaster and Cheltenham respectively in John Lundstram and Luke Garbutt.

Their line-up is Mateuz Taudul, Jonjoe Kenny, Luke Garbutt, Francisco Junior, Tyias Browning, Matthew Pennington, Hallam Hope, Conor Grant, Courtney Duffus, John Lundstram, Christopher Long.
Subs: Mason Springthorpe, Ibou Touray, Ben McLaughlin, Ryan Ledson, Gethin Jones.

6.10pm The team news is in and the Hammers are unchanged from last week. That means they'll line-up with Elliot Lee spearheading the attack as he looks to add to his two goals already this term.

Danny Whitehead, who was involved in several of the first team's friendlies this summer also starts, along with the likes of Dan Potts, George Moncur and Seb Lletget.

West Ham United U21s: Raphael Spiegel; Callum Drive, Leo Chambers, Pelly Ruddock, Dan Potts; Sebastian Lletget, Danny Whitehead, George Moncur; Dylan Tombides, Elliot Lee, Blair Turgott
Subs: Paul McCallum, Gines Guzman, Kieran Sadlier, Amos Nasha, Lewis Page

6pm A very warm welcome from a sunny Southport FC for live coverage of our second Barclays U21 Premier League fixture of the season.

Everton are tonight's opposition and they opened their campaign last week with a 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The Hammers were also victorious in their first match, as Aston Villa were dispatched 3-0 at Rush Green seven days ago.

Elliot Lee was on target twice that night, with Sebastian Lletget scoring the other goal and the Hammers will be hoping to build on that bright start.

We'll have team news very shortly.

Everton: Taudul, Kenny, Garbutt, Junior, Browning, Pennington, Hope, Grant, Duffus, Lundstram, Long
Subs: Springthorpe, Touray, McLaughlin, Ledson, Jones

West Ham United: Spiegel; Driver, Chambers, Ruddock, Potts; Lletget, Whitehead, Moncur; Turgott, Lee, D.Tombides
Subs: McCallum, Guzman, Sadlier, Nasha, Page