Baxter blasts Blues as Tranmere seal Senior Cup victory
Tranmere Rovers became the first Merseyside trophy-winner this season after ex-Everton star James Wallace led his team to victory over his former club.
The 2-1 Liverpool Senior Cup victory over an experienced Everton reserve side will be extra sweet for Wallace, who left the club to find first team football this summer and was promptly handed the captains armband at the League One side.
His performance, which helped Tranmere snatch a last-minute win after falling behind to Everton, also led ex-teammate Jose Baxter to criticise Everton over Twitter for their treatment of the skilful midfielder.
Baxter left the club this summer and is yet to find another side, but he believes Wallace was treated badly by Everton until his departure.
He Tweeted: “Just goes to show. Teams treat players bad and then they leave and come back to absolutely run the game against there (sic) best talent????!! Ha.”
Baxter later deleted the Tweet after an angry reaction from Everton fans, who must have wished Wallace would have signed the contract offered to him in the summer.
Everton’s team included Jack Rodwell, Seamus Coleman, Ross Barkley, Shane Duffy and Greek striker Apostolos Vellios and they took the lead through the latter in the first half.
However, led by a superb Wallace performance, Tranmere fought back. A penalty miss apiece from Tranmere’s Andy Robinson and Everton’s Conor McAleny were offset by Wallace scoring for Tranmere from the spot to level the scores.
In injury time Robinson broke clear to seal the win for Rovers and their tenth Liverpool Senior Cup victory.
It will be a big blow to Everton after losing last year’s final to Southport – and that time former Everton midfielder John-Paul Kissock was the main tormentor with a stunning free-kick in a 2-0 win.
Although it is registered as the first trophy of the season, Tranmere’s win comes after a long slog over the past year.
The tournament began months ago with a selection of local teams battling it out – but Liverpool ducked out to play in the invite-only NextGen European competition.
This left Everton as favourites but a semi-final against Bootle was only just navigated on penalties after a spirited performance from the North West Counties side.
Meanwhile, Tranmere squeezed past Prescot Cables on penalties in their semi-final after the latter had been reinstated once Southport were expelled for fielding an ineligible player.
The competition was lit up by Prescot’s Steven Tames, whose double against Southport and hat-trick against Tranmere caught the eye of several Football League clubs.
Category: Everton FC, Tranmere FC, Watch
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Best talent Baxter? Not a single player from that side will be starting against Utd. Still bitter that Everton released you?
baxter could never string a pass 2gether. and now he tinks he can do it by stringing a sentence on twitter. waste of everton time n no heart makes him bitter.
Why are Everton even playing in this competition for – it’s so small time.
Tames actually got a hat-trick against Tranmere Rovers and a double against Southport.
Gareth. He wasnt released… He turned down an offer of a new two year contract.
HAHA!!! Jose Baxter is hilarious. Has he even got a club yet? James Wallace may be able to “run the game” in a pre-season friendly against Everton reserves but the fact of the matter is that he wasn’t good enough for a Premiership team. Just like Jose Baxter.