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A very wet Widnes Stobart stadium saw a less than entertaining nil nil draw against Everton to secure an unbeaten away league season for City's reserve's.

The first half saw City dominate more of the play with City creating probably the only limited chances with Alex Nimley-Tchuimeni heading a very good cross from the right by Kieran Trippier just wide in the tenth minute.

Trippier was again involved in the other City move with a fine cross field pass that was into the feet of Robbie Mak who saw his right footed shot tipped behind for the corner as he ran into the box.

Just over half way through the second half saw a corner flicked on at the near post and Shane Duffy storm in; but his header cannoned of the cross bar.

With just over ten minutes remaining City's constant pressure came with the ball coming back to Mak on the edge of the area and his first time shot was cleared off the line.

As the game ended both teams could have got a late winner with a Mak corner for City headed back into the danger area but Greg Cunningham could not keep his shot down. Then in the third minute of stoppage time Everton broke on the right and the ball came to Conor McAleny and his shot was heading for the top corner but Gunnar Nielsen reacted brilliantly to tip the ball behind for the corner.

It would be interesting to see if we have ever achieved the unbeaten away part of a reserve season in our history books; I will have to consult the oracles and statisticians for that info I think. Next up is Blackburn Rovers at home which we will hope to perform better than we did against Bolton in the Senior Cup the other week.

HERE IS THE EVERTON VIEW on the game:

A tight game at Halton Stadium ended in a stalemate as Everton and Manchester City were unable to breach each other's defences.

The Blues were looking to bounce back from the 4-1 reverse to Wigan last week and  started pretty well with some quick and confident passing on a soggy pitch.

The first chance though, came via a long-ball over the top for Cody Arnoux which caused panic in the City rearguard. On six minutes, the American forward got in between his markers and drew the goalkeeper Gunnar Neilsen, but the ball got caught under his feet and the chance went begging.

At the opposite end, Iain Turner was himself called into action after 12 minutes when a diagonal ball in the box saw him rushing out to punch clear ahead of Alex Nimely.

It took until the 27th minute for either goalkeeper to be seriously stretched, as Turner went down to his right to palm away Robert Mak's stinging effort.

Nathan Craig then went close with a free-kick from a central position two minutes later - one which narrowly missed Neilsen's top right-hand corner and both sides went in at half-time hoping to spark after the 15 minute break.

With the game a little stretched as both sides went for the opener, it took a tremendously agile interception from Shane Duffy to prevent Nimely with a clear run on goal.

On 65, Jake Bidwell beat his marker on the left touchline and drilled the ball across the six yard box, but there was no blue  shirt able to capitalise after a mis-hit clearance from Scott Kay.

Kieran Trippier's mazy run ended with his left-footed effort being deflected over by a combination of Duffy and Akpan and from the resulting corner, Duffy headed the ball onto his own crossbar and over.

Mak managed to beat Turner with 13 minutes left, but was this time denied by a great goalline clearance from Duffy.

By this time, the energy-sapping turf was bound to be having an effect, but both sides continued to push forward.

Mak got through for a third time on 82, but this time his effort was high and wide of Turner's goal. The Scot was tested though from Deryck Boyata's far-post header from a corner, which he was equal to, palming it wide.

Nathan Craig went closest to breaking the deadlock in injury time, but his curling effort was tipped over by Neilsen and both sides had to settle for a point 

Teams:

Everton:

Turner,Nsiala,Bidwell, Wallace,Mustafi,Duffy, McAleny,Akpan,Arnoux (Murphy 22),Forshaw,Craig(Donegan 72), 

Subs:

Davies,Thompson, Murphy,

Manchester City:

Nielsen, Vidal, Cunningham,Kay, Boyata, Mee (Chantler 85), Trippier, Ibrahim, Nimely, Tutte (Ball 70), Mak

Subs: Gonzales(GK), Redshaw, Smith

Attendance: 284

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