Everton youth coach Paul Tait says their Dallas Cup campaign has been a success.

After winning two of the three group games, the young Blues were eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual champions Coritiba by a solitary goal.

"Obviously, the lads were very disappointed to go out because it's never a nice time to get knocked out of a tournament," Tait told evertonfc.com.

"I thought we let Coritiba get a foothold in the game early on and they dominated possession a little bit, but we still looked a threat on the break in the early stages and made one or two half chances.

"I think that counter-attacking threat is something we've carried throughout the tournament, but, unfortunately if didn't work out for us against Coritiba in the first half.

"Then, the goal we conceded was disappointing from our perspective because there were a few errors in the build up. But we spoke about moving on from that at half-time and we really felt that we could go on and win it.

"I thought, while there were tired bodies in the second half, we performed really well. I thought we took control a bit more but we didn't quite have the guile we needed around the box, whereas Coritiba had that and I think that was the difference.

"It was difficult to play our fourth game in the space of a week and a few decisions went against us on the night - but that's all part of the experience and I believe these players will be better for it when we get back to England."