Nine-man Everton left clinging to uninspiring point against bottom club Wolves

Prior to this week, Wolverhampton Wanderers were on course to become the worst team in Premier League history. Recent performances suggest that they will probably pick up enough wins here and there to surpass Derby County’s miserable tally of 11 in 2007/08 and they can curse Jordan Pickford for denying them one of them at Bramley-Moore Dock tonight.

The Midlanders probably should have been facing a mountain to climb at the halfway stage as Everton had largely dominated the first half, even if they had little to show for it in the way of clear-cut chances. Michael Keane had come within inches of scoring his second goal of the game when he rattled the woodwork but by the time 80-odd minutes had elapsed, if there was going to be a winner of this poor advert for English top-flight football, the one managed by Rob Edwards looked the more likely side.

The Blues increasingly ceded the initiative to their opponents after the interval, David Moyes mystifyingly standing pat with a starting XI that had stagnated over the course of proceedings and was crying out for an injection of something different off the bench. And it was struggling Wolves who wiped out Everton’s 1-0 lead and were pressing for a second when the hosts almost imploded.

Granted, it took the pathetic culture of (selective) trial by video replay and the stringent application of rules that make a mockery of the spirit of the game by Video Assistant Referee Chris Kavanagh and on-field official Thomas Kirk, but knowing the overly officious environment in which they play, Keane and Jack Grealish could have few complaints at their respective red cards in the closing stages.

Found guilty of a brief but perceptible tug on Tolu Arokodare’s hair, Keane was shown a red card in the 83rd minute after the referee was sent to the pitch-side monitor by Kavanagh. Then, when Grealish echoed the anger boiling within every Evertonian inside Hill Dickinson Stadium by sarcastically applauding Kirk’s decision to award him a 90th-minute free-kick, he, too, was ejected for what was deemed to be a second bookable offence.

Added to Idrissa Gueye’s dismissal at Old Trafford in November for slapping his own team-mate, it took Everton’s red card count for the season to three and added to the bizarre catalogue of disciplinary action taken against Toffees players in recent history that includes Iliman Ndiaye flapping like a Seagull and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall taking a quick free-kick.

Maddening, yes, but not as much as Everton’s inability to consistently dominate teams at home and press home their advantage or to prevent their midfield from parting like the Red Sea to usher visiting attackers in for presentable opportunities on goal. One imagines Pickford feels the same way after picking the ball out of his net in the 69th minute and then coming to his team-mates’ rescue with a stunning stoppage-time save that preserved a draw.

Following the disillusionment of Sunday’s wretched display against Brentford, this was the chance for Moyes to take a different tack — the one used at Nottingham Forest, for example, when a natural right-back in Nathan Patterson was introduced and Jake O’Brien moved across to his favoured role at centre-half — and for his charges to redeem themselves for the 2-4 defeat to the Bees.

However, while Harrison Armstrong was a welcome addition to a midfield rounded out by James Garner and Tim Iroegbunam, the ineffective Dwight McNeil was once again played out of position wide on the right and O’Brien-at-right-back experiment continued in defence. Back out in the cold, Tyler Dibling watched on from the bench as a bafflingly un-used substitute.

Nevertheless, despite those annoyances, the game was still there for Everton to win and they looked more than capable of doing so on the evidence of the first period. They had carried almost all the early threat and Iroegbunam should at least have tested José Sá in the Wolves goal rather than belt a half-volley into the North Stand with seven minutes gone.

The former Aston Villa man was heavily involved, though, in Everton’s goal, scored in the 17th minute after Iroegbunam himself had been tripped on the left flank by Jhon Arias. McNeil’s free-kick was headed out only as far as Iroegbunam who lashed it back towards the six-yard box where Keane swept it high into the net with a finish worthy of a centre-forward.

And the defender thought he’d doubled his tally after Vitalii Mykolenko had drilled an effort wide and another foul on Iroegbunam a few minute later set up a dead-ball opportunity a few yards closer to the Wolves penalty area. Once again McNeil swung a left-foot delivery towards the back post and Keane could only glance his header onto the face of the post.

Garner would force a stop from Sá when he cut back onto his right foot and fired a deflected shot goal-wards as the Blues kept pushing for a second while the visitors didn’t really threaten Pickford’s goal until James Tarkowski again gave the ball away in a dangerous area but, thankfully, Hwang Hee-chan dragged his shot across goal and wide.

The first half of the second period was mostly more of the same, albeit with Wolves starting to assert themselves more following the half-time introduction of André for Arias . At one end, Matias Mané sailed a shot well off target and had a shot blocked behind by Grealish while Joao Gomes jinked his way through the Everton defence and tested Pickford for the first time on the night.

At the other, Grealish smashed over after Iroegbunam’s blundering run has taken the threat out of a promising counter-attack before the Toffees’ No 18 fired disappointingly wide after his first shot had been charged down by a defender.

For Wolves, the key moment ended up being an injury to Ladislav Krejčí that prompted Edwards to throw Jorgen Strand Larsen into the mix, a change in formation to which Moyes failed to adapt.

Within two minutes of coming on, the Norwegian had picked Mané out with a ball straight through the heart of Everton’s vapid defence and the teenager whipped it wide of Pickford to level the scores with 21 minutes of the 90 remaining.

If you’re an Everton fan of any vintage, you’ve seen this movie before. The Blues take the lead, eventually sit deep against an inferior side, concede an equaliser and either go on to lose or play out a frustrating and avoidable draw. An Everton victory from that point did, indeed, feel unlikely but any chance of it evaporated when Arokodare came out of an aerial duel with Keane complaining he’d had his hair pulled by the defender.

The Premier League’s version of the school grass duly consulted the replay and advised Kirk to review it himself, after which the novice ref announced to an incredulous crowd that Keane had been guilty of “violent conduct” and flashed him a straight red.

Grealish, who really should know better, compounded the situation by following his team-mate down the tunnel for mocking the ref and earning a second yellow. That his actions didn’t result in a second miserable defeat in the space of three days was down to Pickford who stretched acrobatically to reach an excellent Bueno shot that was arrowing into the top corner before the England star finger-tipped it over the angle of his crossbar and post.

A furious Moyes was booked himself for protesting Keane’s dismissal and his ire continued in his interviews after the final whistle (his mood won't have been improved by replays showing Hwang's stamp on Armstrong's leg that only merited a booking in the eyes of the officials) but he rightly had no sympathy for Grealish. The winger’s actions and consequent suspension will further a deplete a squad that was already stretched to breaking point.

As far as the wider picture, the fact that Everton picked up just one point from home games against Brentford and Wolves will have further ratcheted down expectations for the second half of a season that has, at times, looked hugely promising in terms of a possible tilt at Europe. They could be sitting in fifth place; instead they're in 12th.

Both games suggest that the problems run deeper than the simple absence of key individuals — a general lack of playing style, identity and flexibility from the manager is compounded by a mental fragility and indiscipline among the players.

The return of Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye and Jarrad Branthwaite can only help, as will any new faces that can be added during the winter window but Moyes will need more than that to prove that he can still make a silk purse from a campaign that increasingly looks like a sow’s ear.