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David Unsworth has heaped praise on Tom Davies , Jonjoe Kenny and Liam Walsh after his Everton U23 side were held to a 1-1 draw at Southampton last night.

Oumar Niasse put the Blues ahead in the first half with a well taken half-volley - but the Saints equalised a minute later through Olufela Olomola, which was enough to take a point from the league leaders.

However, there were a few players who stood out for Unsworth - including first-team hopeful Tom Davies.

He said: "Overall, it was a very good performance with some outstanding individual displays from the likes of Jonjoe Kenny, Liam Walsh and Tom Davies, who were as good as I’ve ever seen them."

There have been numerous calls over the last few weeks for Davies to have more of a run in the first team after a series of good performances when called up for Premier League action.

The most recent of those came against Chelsea - where his 25 minute substitute appearance was easily the best of any in an Everton shirt on what was a dismal day.

Unsworth knows that he has a duty to prepare players for first team action but also that his side have to learn to be more consistent in their performances.

"Of course it’s about producing players for our first team but, as I’ve always said and as I preach every single day, an Everton player has to win games as well," Unsworth said.



“On the whole, the performances have been fantastic so far this season and we’ve performed very well for 90 per cent of the games. We have dropped a bit below that standard a couple of times, so now we want to see those standards met even more consistently."