CLASSY CURTIS PILES ON PAIN FOR EVERTON

Youngest derby scorer since Fowler

WHEN Curtis Jones announced himself to Anfield with the winning penalty in a Carabao Cup shoot-out against Arsenal in October, he did so with a two-step run-up and a strike of such pure precision no goalkeeper could have saved it. The ball hit the post and went in at the Kop End.

Here, with the stakes even higher and the profile even larger, the 18-year-old advanced to the next level of excellence.

Once again it was the right foot but this time there was no run-up at all, just a glance, a short backlift and a strike of such technical brilliance from 22 yards that England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford could only feel in vain for the ball as it arced above him and in off the crossbar.

Youthful confidence or just confidence? Time will tell but, for now, Jones is a Liverpool hero, the youngest scorer in a Merseyside derby since Robbie Fowler in 1994, seven years before he was born.

Jones’s goal in the 71st minute was enough to win a game that will hurt Everton as much as any derby defeat in recent times. Everton have not won at Anfield since 1999 but here — rejuvenated under Carlo Ancelotti — they would have fancied their chances against what was effectively a reserve team.

This was an all-or-nothing day for Everton, an opportunity to strike a blow for their own self-respect but one that came laced with the knowledge that failure would arrive with no excuses attached.

For a while it looked as though Everton may, for once, fall the right side of the thin red and blue line. Ancelotti’s team created three clear opportunities in the first half but Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Mason Holgate and the Brazilian Richarlison could not place free hits past Adrian in the Liverpool goal.

That period felt as though it may prove pivotal and it did.

Liverpool looked neutered for a while. With a new signing, Japan forward Takumi Minamino, trying to settle in as the focal point of the attack, Jurgen Klopp’s team did not carry their usual threat. Youth and inexperience were everywhere in red and the average age of the home team fell further early on when James Milner, one of only four senior players, hobbled off injured.

But what became apparent as time wore on was that Liverpool’s young midfield was superior to Everton’s. With that came possession and, eventually, pressure.

Into the second half and Everton’s threat had disappeared, drowned in a flow of red keep-ball. Their only meaningful effort came from a Moise Kean bicycle kick that flew into the Kop in added

time. By then Everton had simply been ground down. The essence of Liverpool’s football — the hard running, the press, the sheer bloodymindedness of it — was being played by different faces but was nonetheless entirely recognisable.

When Everton centre-back Yerry Mina ballooned a clearance high into the air in the latter stages, it told us that Ancelotti’s team were no longer coping. They had contributed to a lively game played in an atmosphere that reminded us once again that there is no such thing as a low-key Merseyside derby but ultimately had come out on the wrong side of it.

Had they scored during that early period of productivity, things may have been different. Once Milner had departed, Liverpool’s defence was manned by Joe Gomez and three players with not a single Premier League game between them.

But Calvert-Lewin drilled a free hit straight at Adrian in the sixth minute, Holgate did the same with a header from a free-kick six minutes later and then, just before the half-hour, Richarlison stretched to side-foot a Theo Walcott cross at the goalkeeper.

That all three chances were squandered was unforgivable. Liverpool were allowed to stay in the game at a time when they were not at their best and nobody should be surprised they went on to make the most of that.

Everton’s midfield was not inexpensive. Morgan Schneiderlin cost £22million and Gylfi Sigurdsson £45m, for example. But over time the influence of Liverpool’s holding player Pedro Chirivella — a 22-year-old from Valencia — was key. The Spaniard provided a platform of security on which Jones, Harvey Elliott and the excellently industrious Adam Lallana could build.

A goal, in truth, did not look like coming. Liverpool were dominant for the second 45 minutes but without being incisive. The last thing Klopp wanted was a replay and this was doubtless behind his decision to send on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with a little over 20 minutes left.

Introduced to settle the matter, all Oxlade-Chamberlain actually did was watch like the rest of us.

Was Pickford out of position as Jones struck? Could he have adjusted his feet more quickly? We can pick holes at that if we wish but small matters of goalkeeping technicalities are not what we will remember.

We will recall instead youthful optimism and promise. When it is mixed with high skill, it is a potent brew. Certainly it was too strong for Everton and a manager who arrived talking cheekily of winning the FA Cup. That one will have to wait a year at least.

LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Adrian 8; Williams 8, Phillips 7, Gomez 7, Milner 6 (Larouci 8); Chirivella 7, Lallana 8, Jones 9; Elliott 8 (Brewster 79), Minamino 6 (OxladeChamberlain 70), Origi 7.

Subs not used: Kelleher, Mane, Henderson, Hoever.

Booked: None. EVERTON (4-4-2): Pickford 6; Coleman 6 (Kean 62), Mina 6, Holgate 6, Digne 6; Sidibe 6, Schneiderlin 5, Sigurdsson 5 (Delph 62), Richarlison 6; Walcott 6 (Bernard 79), Calvert-Lewin 6.

Subs not used: Stekelenburg, Baines,

Keane, Davies. Booked: Digne. Man of the match: Curtis Jones. Referee: Jon Moss. Attendance: 52,000.

‘In my time at Anfield we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool reserves.’ BILL SHANKLY, LIVERPOOL MANAGER 1959-1974