Defensive howlers deprive Everton of first away victory

Fourth place beckoned for Everton this afternoon but, not for the first time this season, they left their travelling fans tearing their hair out at another golden chance to register a first away win since February that went begging.

The Blues had recovered from the sloppy concession of the opening goal shortly after half-time by levelling within seven minutes and then taking the lead midway through the second half, but another defensive howler let Hull back in to claim a point they scarcely deserved.

Had Thierno Barry scored any of three good to gilt-edged chances before he eventually slammed home that equaliser, Everton would have been out of sight before the Tigers’ late rally. As it was, David Moyes and his men had to be content with retaining their unbeaten record in all competitions even while they would once again spend the journey back to Merseyside wondering what might have been.

In keeping with Everton’s start to the campaign, this was another frustrating watch, made worse by the decision by Hull to keep the grass at MKM Stadium long and seemingly devoid of any moisture. Combined with some rustiness on the part of the players coming out of the three-week international break, it meant the game often slowed to walking pace in the first half while the visitors frequently let themselves down with under-hit or miscued passes.

Nevertheless, they set their stall out with some early forays forward and James Garner prompted Konstantinos Tzolakis into tipping a direct free-kick behind in the fourth minute and Jack Grealish seeing a tamer effort saved by the Greek keeper while Joe Gelhardt had Hull’s first shot on target with 21 minutes gone.

Everton, with Michael Keane making his first Premier League start of the season and Jarrad Branthwaite operating as an awkward left-back in place of the injured Vitalii Mykolenko, thought they’d broken the deadlock 11 minutes before the break when Brennan Johnson turned home the loose ball after Nobel Mendy had blocked Harrison Armstrong’s prod off the line. Annoyingly, the winger’s celebrations were extinguished following a lengthy VAR review that ruled he was offside.

The moment helped to ignite what had hitherto been a fairly lifeless contest and either side could have gone into half-time ahead. Gelhardt’s curler was helped wide by James Tarkowski at the far post and Mendy put a free header over the crossbar from the resulting crossbar before Pickford was called upon to parry from Gelhardt after he had latched onto a long ball from Semi Ajayi.

Then, after some trickery from Grealish took him to the byline, he stood an inviting cross up for Barry but the Frenchman despatched his header a couple of feet over the bar when he had to at least hit the target.

The second period was just two minutes old when, out of nowhere, the hosts scored. Oli McBurnie skinned Branthwaite in the Hull half but the danger seemed remote as his pass in search of Gelhardt only found Ainsley Maitland-Niles. The ball got caught under the full-back’s feet, however, and he was robbed by Sorba Thomas who put Gelhardt put clean through to dink it over the on-rushing Pickford and inside the upright.

Everton responded to the set-back well, though. Armstrong, the game’s outstanding player until Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall came out of his shell, fired at Tzolakis and Barry planted a header off Johnson’s accurate cross into the keeper’s arms before Maitland-Niles briefly atoned for his error with an assist.

John Egan had put another Johnson delivery behind for a corner which was cleared but when Maitland-Niles eventually dropped a high ball back into the Tigers' box, Dewsbury-Hall beat the offside trap to cushion a header past Tzolakis to make it 1–1 in the 55th minute.

It should have been 2–1 just five minutes later when a great move involving Branthwaite and Grealish down the left ended with the big defender squaring it across the six-yard box but Barry couldn’t adjust his feet and the ball slipped agonisingly between his legs.

That represented a hat-trick of missed opportunities for the striker but he made amends a few minutes later when the alert Dewsbury-Hall seized on Thomas’s attempted backwards pass for Mendy and won the subsequent challenge with the defender to knock it into space. Barry raced onto the loose ball and swept it emphatically past Tzolakis to put Everton in the driving seat and on course for victory if they could either kill Hull off or, at least, see the game out.

Sadly, within six minutes the lead evaporated thanks in large part to another awful error by Maitland-Niles. The defender appeared to have the beating of Elliot Stroud near the byline but made a hash of trying to back-heel it to Garner and was dispossessed, with substitute Mohamed Belloumi controlling the cut-back before driving a low shot to which Pickford got a firm hand but he couldn’t keep it out.

This time, despite some positive changes that saw Tyrique George, Tyler Dibling, Hayden Hackney and Charly Alcaraz come on in the closing stages, Everton couldn’t carve open the chances to win it. Alcaraz wasted one late opening when he elected to shoot weakly off target rather than play Hackney in to his right but, ultimately, it was a forgettable conclusion.

Again, in spite of a result that extends the Toffees’ unbeaten run to eight games, it’s hard not feel hugely frustrated in the wake of another winnable match and performance that just about deserved more.

As at Bournemouth six weeks ago, Barry will be disappointed he didn’t fill his boots while Moyes will rue the defensive lapses that gifted Hull two goals that they otherwise looked unlikely to get.