Tony Bellew hails Lewis Warrington after impressive Everton debut
Everton scraped into the third round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night with a 1-0 win away at League One outfit Fleetwood Town.
Demarai Gray’s first-half strike was enough to see off Scott Brown’s Cod Army who valiantly fought to the final whistle at Highbury but to no avail.
A slightly rotated side from Frank Lampard allowed debuts for three Everton youngsters with Reece Welch getting his first start for the club while Lewis Warrington and Stan Mills came off the bench in the second half.
Warrington has been touted for a loan move away from Goodison Park but Frank Lampard wants to keep him at the club having been impressed in pre-season.
World heavyweight boxer Tony Bellew, an avid Evertonian himself, was delighted to see the teenager make his senior debut and congratulated him on Twitter. “Well done lad,” Bellew said.
Pathway
The local lad looked the part against Fleetwood on Tuesday and that should be the platform for him to be involved much more often in the first team.
Amadou Onana’s arrival has added another option for Warrington to get past in his path to becoming a regular at Goodison Park and perhaps Lampard should allow him to go back out on loan as he did last season with Tranmere Rovers.
But the manager has to put together some kind of pathway for him to get himself into the squad regularly or potentially lose him when his contract expires.
Everton are currently not in a position to take too many risks having just about survived last season and started slowly this time around which is not an ideal scenario for him.
But the club’s transfer budget is restricted and that could stop any further midfield additions from coming to Finch Farm and being another problem for Warrington to get past.