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This was a title celebration soaked in champagne.

And then, because the bubbly had run out, bottles of beer.

It also promises to last for a couple of days yet.

“They've got plenty of time off and if they go to parties I don't want to know about it!”

David Unsworth, who will not see his players again until Friday, could not escape a drenching as he walked into the home changing room at Goodison on Monday night as his under-23s squad toasted their Premier League 2 title success.

Read our exclusive interview with Everton prospect Lewis Gibson HERE

A succession of club officials walked in bone dry but re-emerged with some – or a lot – of alcohol on their clothes and in their hair.

A grinning director of football Marcel Brands seemed to be the only one to avoid the spray from shaken bottles but one member of the backroom staff was not so lucky, discovering he had money in his pocket that would need some serious drying out before used at the till.

Captain Morgan Feeney, when being interviewed by Everton TV, was subject to the customary big bucket of water over the head from mischievous team-mates, as the title celebration started to resemble a pool party.

For Feeney, a winner in 2017, the feeling of lifting the trophy will have been doubly sweet because on Monday night he not only captained the Blues to victory – but did so having made personal sacrifice to lead the team to glory.

“I couldn't be prouder of Morgan,” Unsworth said.

“What people don't know is the pain that boy has gone through this season with his knees.

“This kid is amazing, he doesn't miss games and he was in excruciating pain on Monday, he's been in excruciating pain all season. He needs a summer off where he just rests his knees because he's growing and he's had those two big operations.

“But this is why he's captain, because he leads from the front. A lesser player would not have played this season and so for him to play as many games as he had done, has surprised me.

“He's a real throwback, not just defender, but person. He's a wonderful character and that's why he's captain.”

“Ten years ago it would have, maybe, finished him,” Unsworth added.

“He's been in a lot of pain and I take my hat off to him.”

A loan move is the next natural step for Feeney, as it will be for many of his team-mates, as Unsworth prepares for another rebuild after a title-winning campaign.

“It's part of the job,” he said, playing down the extent of such a task.

“The under-18s have had a good year and three or four of those players will be with us again.

“This team will probably get dismantled and we'll start all over again next year.”

Both of Everton's Premier League 2 title successes have come with a game to spare but the similarities between the class of 2017 and the current one end there.

The side that was captained by Jonjoe Kenny and included Kieran Dowell and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored more goals and won more games but there's been a resolve, and defensive solidity about the 2019 group, that they didn't have.

They have conceded only 12 goals in 21 league games with Monday's 1-0 win over nearest rivals Brighton bagging a 13th clean sheet of the season.

“At the start of pre-season, on July 1, I got the boys in and said to them: 'Come on then, let's try and win the league'” Unsworth said.

“And along the way we've got over the line in games when maybe the team two years ago was maybe a little bit more comfortable.

“It still feels great, it's still a great achievement for the players and I'm very proud of them.

“We were probably more of an attacking team two years ago with Dowell and Calvert-Lewin and Harry Charsley was scoring for fun.

“This year we've had a great base, we got another clean sheet on Monday night, and that's been the basis for our ability to go and win games. We've won a lot of games 1-0 and got over the line.

“It is a different feeling, I can't lie.

“But it's still a great feeling and a great habit. I'm proud of the players. We should've been out of the sight in the game but missed opportunities and then give away a penalty, so in typical style we did it the hard way.

“There were some really good performance though and Brighton are a good team and played really well, and they've had a great season so fair play to them, but this is great platform for these boys to now kick on.

“I thought Josh Bowler was outstanding, absolutely outstanding and hopefully that should catapult him to the next level.”

This season's success has been underpinned by a clutch of new arrivals.

In the summer following the league win, Unsworth knew a rebuild was required and so signed Lewis Gibson, Nathangelo Markelo, Dennis Adeniran and Bowler – Monday night's match-winner - before goalkeeper Joao Virginia was added at the start of this term.

Boris Mathis, signed by Steve Walsh in 2017, has struggled to make the grade at Goodison and will leave this summer.

But the other five have been key to a new-look squad repeating the feat of two years ago.

The ultimate aim, of course, is for them to be good enough for Everton's first-team and Unsworth believes this win offers his players a better chance of making it.

“What I've always said at this level is that it's a platform to someone's first-team – hopefully ours,” he said.

“And you get a better and higher platform if your team is winning. There are more players who come through when you're a winning team and the proof will be in the pudding.

“We have to wait and see but I know they won't let anybody down if they do get the opportunity.”