Premier League GWK2 from Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth
The Toffees travelled to e south coast with intense speculation around the futures of Illiman Ndiaye & Harrison Armstrong, both of whom had started the season in fine form and both players that no blues fans would want to see leave the football club.
In from the victory over Preston in midweek came Jarrad Branthwaite for Michael Keane, Tyrique George for Tyler Dibling and James Garner retained his place as Hayden Hackney returned to take his place on the bench for the blues.
Everton won this fixture last season with a late deflected Jack Grealish goal and the blues started the game looking to add some more points to their tally after taking all 3 in the opening game of the season the previous weekend.
The game started out with the blues on the front foot but Bournemouth were also looking to continue their excellent Home form at the vitality stadium.
The first real chance of the game was a big one and it came for the Blues in the 9th minute. Merlin Rohl had a cross blocked by Truffert and the blues won a corner.
Dewsbury Hall took the corner and put a great ball into the near post area and Jarrad Branthwaite flicked a header towards the far post only to see Petrovic make a brilliant save and push the ball wide of the post.
in the 14th minute it was Bournemouth’s turn to have a real effort at goal when Rayan went on a nice run and forced Pickford into a save to keep his effort out.
Everton responded instantly and it was Ndiaye who took the ball from George on the left hand corner of the penalty area to hit a low drive that forced Petrovc into another save.
In the 19th minute Everton had another glorious chance to take the lead when Tyrique George cut in from the left corner of the area to fire a shot in that Petrovic saved but spilt and Thierno Barry was the first to react but he hit his shot first time and hit the keeper in the process when he possibly should have knocked it to the side of the keeper to leave himself a tap in.
The next 20 minutes saw Bournemouth take control of the half and start to exert some pressure onto Everton’s goal with Rayan and Kluivert having good efforts.
Bournemouth saw bookings for Scott & Smith but they were celebrating when the 40th minute come around.
George lost possession on the attack for Everton and suddenly a ball out wide found Evanilson one on one with Tarkowski. He easily picked out Alex Scott on the edge of the box and the excellent Scott found the bottom left corner of the Everton net to give Bournemouth the lead. 1-0
Everton had a final chance of the half & led a 3 on 3 break after KDH carried the ball to the edge of the box before slipping in Barry at the back post but the striker could only shoot wide of the near post when it looked a great chance to find the bottom corner and equalise for Everton.
Bmouth 1st Half Everton
0.47 XG 1.14
56% Ball Possession 44%
7 Total shots 9
3 Shots on Target 5
1 Big Chances 2
The blues started the 2nd half well and in the 49th minute created a glorious opportunity when James Garner won the ball high up field and passed to Armstrong who left 2 Bmouth defenders trailing with a nice slipped ball into Thierno Barry who then beautifully cut back in towards goal & opened up a great chance for himself to score but he again couldn’t apply the finish and his effort was saved.
There was controversy in the 55th minute when there was a strong penalty appeal for the blues after a run across the box from KDH saw an outstretched foot seemingly bring down the Everton midfielder. The players appealed but after our nemesis of a referee Chris Kavanagh consulted with VAR there was to be no change to his original decision of no penalty.
There was a case for KDH to have been the player to have initiated the contact but also a case that it should have been a penalty. As always it seems with Kavanagh as an official, the decision went against us.
Marcus Tavernier had picked up a booking in the 52nd minute and it was James Garners turn in the 59th minute.
The blues made changes in the 61st minute with George off for Johnson and Garner off for Hackney.
James Garner hadn’t quite been his usual self but after having no pre season and then being rushed back it was easy to see that he isn’t quite up to speed just yet and back to his usual high standard but the minutes will be doing him good.
In the 69th minute Thierno Barry and his mis firing boots, left the field for Beto to come on and try and help the blues find an equaliser. The hat trick hero of midweek had an off day in front of goal today for sure.
Bournemouth had been controlling the 2nd half and the blues were struggling to fashion any clear chances and then getting hit several times on the transition with Bournemouth able to get in plenty of shooting opportunities. In the 76th minute Pickford had to Dave from Rayan but the rebound fell nicely for Evanilson only for Hayden Hackney to make a brilliant block and send the ball out for a corner.
In the 84th minute the blues found themselves defending yet another Bournemouth counter and the ball found its way again to Rayan who fired in a shot that Mykolenko flung himself to block only for the ball to fall to Alex Scott on the edge of the box again. Scott fired in towards the right hand corner but Mykolenko again brilliantly flung himself in front of the shot to send the ball away from the blues goal. The game could have been over & done there but for the excellent blocking from Mykolenko and it was to prove a pivotal moment in the match because in the 91st minute Everton had won a corner and Hayden Hackney put a poor ball towards the edge of the box. Two Bournemouth players got in each others way and the ball fell kindly towards goal and more importantly towards James Tarkowski. The club captain was able to take the ball and fire it across goal and into the bottom corner to send the travelling Evertonians wild and into celebrations that the blues were level. 1-1
Tim Iroegbunam had replaced Merlin Rohl plus Charlie Alcaraz had replaced Harrison Armsrong in the 86th minute then Charlie picked up a booking deep into injury time but the blues closed out the match to grab a very good and hard earned point.
Post match the Everton players celebrated the point with the travelling fans who made their feelings known to all about the rumours surrounding Everton being about to accept a bid for Harrison Armstrong. Several of the players seemed to be in agreement with the feeling of the fans.
A crucial few days in the transfer market lie ahead.
Attendance :-11,135
Referee : Chris Kavanagh
Bmouth 2nd Half Everton
1.68 XG 0.7
62% Ball Possession 38%
10 Total shots 4
2 Shots on Target 2
5 Big Chances 1
Bmouth Overall Everton
2.16 XG 1.84
59% Ball Possession 41%
17 Total shots 13
5 Shots on Target 7
6 Big Chances 3
About The Author
Leave a Reply