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EVERTON UNDER-21s 3 NORWICH UNDER-21s 1

BRAZILIAN right-back Felipe Mattioni Rohde, 26, was a surprise inclusion for Everton Under-21s at Southport’s Merseyrail Community Stadium last night.

The former Gremio and Espanyol player, now a free agent, has been plagued by injuries throughout his career - making just 13 league appearances for Gremio, 10 for Espanyol, 20 for Mallorca and a solitary appearance on loan for AC Milan in 2009 which lasted barely a minute.

Shortly after joining Espanyol Mattioni suffered severe cruciate knee ligament damage and missed the entire 2010/11 season. Soon after recovering from that setback he cruelly sustained exactly the same injury in his other knee.

Described on the Blues official Twitter account as “currently working with the team” Mattioni played 85 minutes of Everton’s 3-1 defeat of Norwich City, along with Bryan Oviedo and summer signing Mason Holgate.

Holgate gave Everton a 64th minute lead after the Toffees and the Canaries had swapped first half penalty kicks. Jamar Loza scored from the spot for the visitors and Jonjoe Kenny converted on the stroke of half-time for the Blues.

Callum Connolly made the game safe for the Blues striding forward from his holding midfield role to drill home in the 66th minute and secure all three points.

Mattioni made way after 85 minutes for Ryan Ledson but had already enjoyed an eventful evening.

He conceded the foul which allowed Loza to open the scoring on 32 minutes, before a marauding run drew the tackle that gave Kenny the chance to level from 12 yards.

EVERTON U21s: Hewelt, Mattioni (Ledson 85), Kenny, Holgate, Oviedo, Connolly, Grant, Williams (c), Dyson, Jones (Henen 59), Byrne (Charsley 77). Unused subs: Gray, Yates.

NORWICH U21S: Killip; Toffolo, Coker, Efete, Norman; Grant, McGrandles, Loza; Cantwell, Ashley-Seal (Ramsey 67), Eaton-Collins (King 67).