Bray Wanderers - 0 Everton - 4 A crowd of 6,000 saw an entertaining display by an Everton side that never had to flex their muscles to overcome Bray Wanderers last night. The home team struggled to stay competitive, but Pat Devlin's men could not have asked for a better warm-up game. The pace was just too much.
Everton players seemed to have an eternity on the ball. Even without Wayne Rooney and Duncan Ferguson, it looked destined to be a hiding.
But they never reached full throttle. On a Premiership afternoon Scot Gemmill's early miss, after an excellent cushioned header from Francis Jeffers, would have been unforgivable.
Yet, although last night was a million miles away from a packed Goodison Park, Jeffers didn't seem to mind. The young England international looked like he could score at will, and he did find the net twice in the first-half.
First he had to shake off the cobwebs. He forced Chris O'Connor into an early save, and then fired over after 13 minutes.
There was no mistake with his third chance as he tapped home a cross from the impressive left wing James McFadden. The second came a minute into injury-time, when Bray had been enjoying their best period. The assist arrived from Lee Carsley.
Wanderers did have some bright points. New signing Kevin Grogan looked a class act, and his arrival may turn out to be a masterstroke by Devlin. The former Manchester United trainee had the best chance to level the contest five minutes before the interval when his perfect first touch allowed him to unleash a shot that Richard Wright did well to stop.
Still, it was clear you were watching an amateur side, in pre-season, against a cantering professional outfit.
Bray came close to scoring early in the second-half when Wright deflected Colm Tresson's powerful drive into the path of Grogan who fired well over.
With 13 minutes remaining McFadden added a third goal after a Gemmill pass. Then, with just two minutes of normal time left, Nick Chadwick grabbed a fourth when O'Connor failed to hold Steve Watson's low shot.
BRAY WANDERERS: O'Connor; Tresson, Lynch, Charles, Farrell; Quinn, Gormley, James, McGuinness; O'Brien, Grogan. Subs: Lawlor for O'Brien (64 mins), Lawless for Quinn, Ryan for Gormley (both 73 mins), O'Hanlon for Tresson, Manley for Farrell (both 84 mins), Rushe for O'Connor, Fitzpatrick for Grogan (both 88 mins).
EVERTON: Wright; Hibbert, Weir, Unsworth, Naysmith; Carsley, Nyarko, Gemmill, McFadden; Campbell, Jeffers. Subs: Watson for Unsworth, Radzinski for Campbell (both half-time), Chadwick for Jeffers (73 mins) Referee: P McKeown (Dublin).
