Everton ride their luck and Bramley-Moore fume to win third straight game

As Yann Gboho’s toe-poke rolled over the goal line in front of the North Stand with 51 minutes on the clock, it all felt very Everton. Coming off two impressive wins over Newcastle, with newly-promoted Coventry in town and fifth place in the Premier League beckoning the Blues if they could cap off a great week with a win, it looked for all the world as they were going to chuck all that optimism into the Mersey.

Evertonians have seen this movie countless times before when supposedly inferior teams come to Merseyside; on too many occasions down the years Everton have stumbled when the onus was on them to do a professional job and win when they were expected to.

Thankfully, this David Moyes side ripped up the script, rallied in the remainder of the second half and emerged the victors by three goals to one on the back of a brace from Thierno Barry and another thumping finish from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

But, boy, was it hideous at times in the latter half of the first period and for the first few minutes of the second. Having made a positive start to the contest where a lack of clinical edge and quick thinking in the final third seemed to let them down, the Toffees’ performance degenerated for a good half hour into a sloppy, error-strewn mess.

Coventry had been expected to struggle in their first season back in the top flight for 25 years, particularly after Arsenal brushed them aside at the Emirates on the opening day and they were then beaten by Hull and Manchester City. Credit to Frank Lampard, though — his Sky Blues had found their feet since then, winning three of their next four to lift themselves out of the bottom three.

And there was plenty to admire about the way his men absorbed Everton’s early pressure and then set about making inroads themselves at the other end. Caleb Yirenkyi’s clipped ball into the box searching out Taiwo Awoniyi’s head was an early alarm bell for the hosts but a flurry of forays forward from the Blues suggested that Moyes’s boys were in the mood.

However, Barry allowed a positive opening to ebb away when he latched onto an excellent Dewsbury-Hall through-ball and, ignoring the better placed Vitalii Mykolenko, he then delayed his shot and eventually left himself with too much to do. Mykolenko himself then collected a fortunate ricochet and forced the first meaningful save from Carl Rushworth.

In general, while they were purposeful and willing going forward, Everton too often slowed things down and they became increasingly careless in possession. With the Bramley-Moore Dock crowd becoming audibly vexed, Coventry began to take advantage. Jack Rudoni headed Jay Dasilva’s cross well off wide, Victor Torp missed the target by a similar margin with a long-range effort and Jordan Pickford parried Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s drive.

Torp really should have either netted or worked Pickford 10 minutes before half-time, though, when Rudoni seized on Jarrad Branthwaite’s headed clearance and quickly played Sakamoto in but when the ball eventually came across the box the Danish midfielder mis-kicked from about 10 yards out.

James Tarkowski somehow escaped censure for grabbing Yirenkyi’s hair as the pair challenged for a high ball in Everton’s penalty area, Rudoni flashed a shot inches past the far post and Torp forced Pickford into pushing his driven free-kick behind as the visitors finished the half well in the ascendency.

Whatever instructions Moyes had dispensed in the dressing room appeared to have fallen on deaf ears because that pattern continued after the interval, much to the clear annoyance of the crowd. The Blues kept giving the ball away, conceding needless fouls and losing their physical battles to opponents who seemed to sense blood.

Despite a lively opening quarter hour, James Garner, like Tyrique George, was among the chief offenders in spurning possession and it was his mistake that turned the ball over within a minute of the restart but Gboho’s deflected shot failed to unduly trouble Pickford.

Another review by VAR Timothy Wood had the Hill Dickinson Stadium crowd holding its breath after Awoniyi had been sent sprawling to the turf under Mykolenko’s challenge but it was determined that the contact had occurred outside the box, another decision that could easily have gone the other way on another night.

Four minutes later, though, after Harrison Armstrong had fired tamely at Rushworth when Merlin Röhl played him in nicely, Coventry took the lead with what was a slow-motion car crash of a goal from Everton’s perspective. With the ball bouncing around outside the six-yard box from Tatsuhiro’s blocked effort and surrounded by four blue shirts, Gboho managed to bring it under control and prod it through Branthwaite’s legs and then past Pickford to make it 1–0 to Lampard’s team.

The reaction from the Blues’s fans was vitriolic but it proved to be the catalyst Everton needed to get their act together. To give them their due, they responded superbly and were level within four minutes. Twice in succession Mykolenko sent inviting deliveries into the visitors’ area but the second was on the money, inviting Barry to power a header goal-wards that Rushworth couldn’t keep out despite getting a glove to it.

Five minutes after that, the Toffeemen had turned the match on its head, although not before having to survive a Coventry counter-attack that had Awoniyi romping into space and which ended with Rudoni seeing a shot deflected behind.

It was Barry, though, whose vastly-improved display and tireless work was rewarded with some fortune at the other end when George, who had shaken himself out of an ever-more ragged personal performance, twisted and turned his man before lofting a cross to the back post where Everton’s marksman bundled it over the goal line.

There was a claim from Coventry’s defenders that the ball might have struck Barry’s hand but when the VAR could find not convincing evidence as such, the goal was allowed to stand. Yet more rub of the green for the boys in Blue.

Then, after the manager had made a positive triple change that saw Hayden Hackney, Brennan Johnson and Jake O’Brien come on for Armstrong, Dibling and Röhl, Everton found a decisive third with nine minutes left of the 90.

This time Barry turned provider with a perfectly-weighted pass between the lines that found Dewsbury-Hall fractionally onside and he drove towards goal before lashing a left-footed strike between the keeper and post to make it 3–1.

It was almost 4–1 three minutes later when Ethan Pinnock, stretching for a ball he couldn’t reach, left George with a free run down the left and when Rushworth saved the winger’s shot with his foot, the rebound cannoned off Barry and bounced wide when it could have gone anywhere.

Apart from a late chance in stoppage time for substitutes Loum Tchaouna and Hackney, the former dragging the ball across the face of Pickford’s goal and the latter heading Mykolenko’s cross into the keeper’s arms, that was all she wrote on what ended up being a victorious night for Everton on the waterfront.

It was very much a “Jekyll and Hyde” performance but one that ultimately demonstrated the quality and the huge character present in a squad that has now won three on the bounce in all competitions and who begin matchweek 10 sitting in that fifth-place berth for the time being.

The two-week international break will allow a group that is short on numbers some well-earned rest and recuperation before the quest to make this a far better season than the owners deserve continues with a trip to Brentford and another night game.