A mistake by Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard gifted Rafael Van der Vaart a tap in from close range, to cancel out Leighton Baines’s superb free kick that had given Everton the lead on 17 minutes.
Prior to the kickoff, tribute was paid to two Spurs stalwarts of yesteryear who both recently passed away. Breaking with the tradition of a minute’s silence on such occasions, crowd and players instead honored the late Eddie Bailey and Mel Hopkins with one minute’s applause.
When the match finally got underway the pace was fast and furious. With Tottenham returning from a difficult midweek trip to Milan, Everton were no doubt hoping that their opponents would tire as the game wore on.
While the football was entertaining enough, the first quarter of an hour produced little in the final third at either end with long-range shots from Tim Cahill and Luka Modric failing to trouble Gomez or Howard respectively.
But when Yakubu was fouled on the edge of the box to the right of centre, it looked a tailor-made opportunity for left-footed dead ball specialist Leighton Baines. The Everton man duly obliged with a superb strike over the Tottenham defensive wall that dipped and curled inside Gomez’s left hand post with the Spurs keeper nowhere in sight.
Yet it took Harry Redknapp’s men only three minutes to level things up. Tim Howard uncharacteristically missed Alan Hutton’s cross, which found Peter Crouch on the far post. He put it back into the middle where Rafael Van der Vaart eagerly pounced to score for the fifth time in as many games.
Tottenham proceeded to enjoy a good spell with Crouch heading straight at Howard and squandering a good chance that you would normally expect the tall striker to put away. He also had an appeal for a penalty turned down.
Truth to tell, the second half failed to live up to the promise of the first. Spurs clearly wanted to slow the pace and to some extent succeeded in doing so. They did have the best of the chances in the second period but failed to make any of them count. Following his hat trick in the San Siro on Wednesday, Gareth Bale looked like a mere mortal and was for the most part kept fairly quiet by a well organized Everton defense, ably marshaled as ever by their highly experienced skipper Phil Neville.
The Goodison faithful will have been pleased to see Louis Saha come on as a sub in the second half after missing six games with a calf injury. They will be less happy with the man he replaced. The hapless Yakubu has not scored since last February and, to compound his woes, ended the match on the bench with an ice pack on his ankle.
Nonetheless, David Moyes will have been reasonably happy to come away from White Hart Lane with a point, while his opposite number would have to see it as two dropped, notwithstanding the fact that the draw puts Spurs up to third in the table—at least until Arsenal and Manchester United complete their respective games tomorrow.
Prior to the kickoff, tribute was paid to two Spurs stalwarts of yesteryear who both recently passed away. Breaking with the tradition of a minute’s silence on such occasions, crowd and players instead honored the late Eddie Bailey and Mel Hopkins with one minute’s applause.
When the match finally got underway the pace was fast and furious. With Tottenham returning from a difficult midweek trip to Milan, Everton were no doubt hoping that their opponents would tire as the game wore on.
While the football was entertaining enough, the first quarter of an hour produced little in the final third at either end with long-range shots from Tim Cahill and Luka Modric failing to trouble Gomez or Howard respectively.
But when Yakubu was fouled on the edge of the box to the right of centre, it looked a tailor-made opportunity for left-footed dead ball specialist Leighton Baines. The Everton man duly obliged with a superb strike over the Tottenham defensive wall that dipped and curled inside Gomez’s left hand post with the Spurs keeper nowhere in sight.
Yet it took Harry Redknapp’s men only three minutes to level things up. Tim Howard uncharacteristically missed Alan Hutton’s cross, which found Peter Crouch on the far post. He put it back into the middle where Rafael Van der Vaart eagerly pounced to score for the fifth time in as many games.
Tottenham proceeded to enjoy a good spell with Crouch heading straight at Howard and squandering a good chance that you would normally expect the tall striker to put away. He also had an appeal for a penalty turned down.
Truth to tell, the second half failed to live up to the promise of the first. Spurs clearly wanted to slow the pace and to some extent succeeded in doing so. They did have the best of the chances in the second period but failed to make any of them count. Following his hat trick in the San Siro on Wednesday, Gareth Bale looked like a mere mortal and was for the most part kept fairly quiet by a well organized Everton defense, ably marshaled as ever by their highly experienced skipper Phil Neville.
The Goodison faithful will have been pleased to see Louis Saha come on as a sub in the second half after missing six games with a calf injury. They will be less happy with the man he replaced. The hapless Yakubu has not scored since last February and, to compound his woes, ended the match on the bench with an ice pack on his ankle.
Nonetheless, David Moyes will have been reasonably happy to come away from White Hart Lane with a point, while his opposite number would have to see it as two dropped, notwithstanding the fact that the draw puts Spurs up to third in the table—at least until Arsenal and Manchester United complete their respective games tomorrow.
