Everton 1 : Wolves 1
08/21/2010 07:06:10 PM
Wolves scraped a 1-1 draw at Everton, who need to make chances pay in games like this if they are to have any chance of bothering the top four this season.
The decisive moment of the game came in the 69th minute with the hosts 1-0 up when Jermaine Beckford, making his full Premier League debut, chose to go it alone rather than lay the ball off.
Wolves rallied and five minutes later Kevin Doyle crossed from the right for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to bury home.
It was all Everton in the first half and it was only right that Tim Cahill put the hosts in front two minutes before the break.
Mikel Arteta beat several Wolves defenders and was brought down on the edge of the box for a free-kick.
Replays suggested the foul was committed inside the penalty area. Arteta hit his free-kick into the wall but livewire Cahill was first to react and he barged Jody Craddock out of the way to fire into the roof of the net.
Under the watchful eye of England boss Fabio Capello, Everton were all over Wolves during the first-hald.
George Elokobi and Craddock were reduced to desperate hacks to keep the visitors' heads above water.
Former Leeds United man Beckford caused Mick McCarthy's side problems early on and Christophe Berra scythed him down with only five minutes gone.
Johnny Heitinga came close to breaking the deadlock in the 26th minute when he was set up by Tim Cahill but his effort was beaten away by Marcus Hahnemann. From the resulting corner the Aussie headed just over.
Wolves finally started to make their way forward in the second half when Matt Jarvis made good headway down the left. It was all for nothing as the resulting corner was comfortably gathered by home keeper Tim Howard.
The home side should have added a second when Cahill knocked down brilliantly for Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, who was blocked as he shaped to shoot.