Everton U21 4 Brentford U21 2: 10-man Bees knocked out of PDL play-offs in quarter-finals by Toffees

On 13 minutes, the young Toffees' had their first sight of goal as Akarakiri arrived on the edge of the box, but Matas Klimas was brave to throw his body in front of the curling effort and block the ball.

Owen was a live-wire in the centre of the park for the west Londoners and had an effort from range on 27 minutes after drifting into a pocket of space, but his bending strike was too close to George Pickford.

On the half-hour mark, Picotto came as close as possible to adding his and Brentford's second of the evening. The left wing-back pressed from his own half in to the penalty area, where Reece Welch misjudged the flight of the ball. Pickford rushed out to meet Picotto, who struck the inside of both posts with his desperately unlucky effort.

Michel Boni then had a snap-shot half-volley from the edge of the area fly just wide of the right-hand post as the Bees pushed to make their control count. On 34 minutes, the striker should have doubled the advantage, snatching at a left-footed strike from close range when Pierre had earned him time with a clever knocked-down header.

Then, on the brink of half-time, Everton had an equaliser against the run of play. Premier League 2's third top-scorer Graham cut inside and whipped a ball to the back post, where Davis squeezed the ball past Julian Eyestone on the stretch. Saunders' side, despite dominating the majority of the first half, had to go in at the break level at 1-1.

The second-half began in a reverse manner, with Everton forcing the Bees to defend for the early minutes - Pierre blocked excellently five minutes after the restart to deny Shea Pita's fierce strike.

Caelan Avenell was the next to make a huge last-ditch challenge after Eyestone got a hand on a cross into no-man's-land, but substitute Joel Catebsy landed on the rebound. Avenell rushed across heroically to prevent what looked certain to be a strike at an empty net.

On 54 minutes, the game shifted again as Brentford skipper Stephenson was shown a second yellow after a lunging challenge and the west Londoners were reduced to 10 men.

10 minutes later and the Bees were behind. Graham found space on the left again to cross into the area, where Akarakiri got between Avenell and Eyestone to tap home and make it 2-1 to the home side.

Things went from bad to worse for Saunders' side as Avenell brought down Graham on 68 minutes and the referee pointed to the spot. The winger chipped his penalty down the middle to give Everton a two-goal lead.

Eyestone made a big save on 72 minutes as Pita slid in at the back post, but the Toffees had a fourth with eight to play as Graham swept past the Brentford keeper to make it 4-1 with his second.

Laidlaw pulled one back with a driven effort into the bottom-left corner to give the west Londoners a glimmer of hope on 87 minutes and Eyestone made a fantastic double save in stoppage time, but ultimately it wasn't to be as they were knocked out of the competition in the quarter-final.

The Bees now finish their season with the fourth annual Robert Rowan Invitational on Monday 18 May (7pm kick-off BST, as they welcome PSG Under-21s to Gtech Community Stadium, raising money for Heart of West London.

Everton: Pickford, Davis, Samuels-Smith, Welch, Thomas, Foster (Olayiwola 84), Pita (Matos 77), Bates, Benjamin (Catesby 46), Akarakiri (Boakye 77), Graham

Subs: Patrick

Booked: Davis 83

Brentford: Eyestone, Klimas, Picotto, Avenell, Stephenson, Grey, Pierre, Owen, Boni, Mawene (Redknapp 75), Laidlaw

Subs: Wolfheimer, Hanson, Ogungbemi, Trialist A

Booked: Stephenson 39, Avenell 54, Mawene 56

Sent off: Stephenson 54