Thomas Myhre spared Everton's blushes at Elland Road today with an immaculate
goalkeeping display on his debut to ensure a point for the Merseysiders at
Elland Road.
The Norwegian, an £800,00 signing from Viking Stavanger, ensured that Everton
avoided the humiliation of a club record six consecutive defeats.
The point lifted Howard Kendall's team off the bottom of the Premiership but,
if skipper Gary Speed had scored a first half penalty against his old club, then
his manager would indeed have been smiling.
Of all the Christmas gifts that Kendall could have brought to Everton, Myhre
may prove to be worth his weight in gold.
He was in action as early as the fourth minute, swooping out of his goal to
smother Rod Wallace's shot when the little striker had beaten Everton's offside
trap.
There was even better to come from the 24-year-old Norwegian, who relegated
Welsh veteran keeper Neville Southall to the bench.
With a quarter of an hour gone, Leeds' Australian striker Harry Kewell hit a
rising drive from the left of the penalty area that seemed to be heading into
the roof of the net until Myhre leapt to his left to tip the ball away.
It was not one-way traffic, though, and Everton must have worried George
Graham, newly-crowned as manager of the month, with a couple of chances in the
first half.
Mitch Ward should have done much better when he met Andy Hinchcliffe's cross
at the far post but his first-time effort failed to get anywhere near the
target.
At the other end, Dave Watson, in for the dropped Slaven Bilic, made light of
his advancing years to deny Wallace a goal-scoring opportunity when the striker
was poised to sprint away.
Two minutes before half time came the penalty, won by England international
Nicky Barmby. Picking the ball up on the edge of the box he tricked his way past
David Wetherall, who lunged in in desperation.
But keeper Nigel Martyn showed he was equal to Myhre by flinging himself to
the left to divert Speed's spotkick for a corner.
In the second half, both sides struggled to create any meaningful chances.
Leeds, with four wins in their last four league matches, were perhaps unused to
being in a position where they did not have to come from behind - victories
against Derby, West Ham and Barnsley having been achieved in that way.
They had a chance to clinch it near the end when Kewell, set up on the
six-yard box by substitute Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, could only shoot into the
grateful Myhre's hands when a goal would have been easier to score.
Bruno Riberio (Leeds) and Barmby, for Everton, had half-chances, both of them
failing to test their respective keepers, but there was little to commend the
game as a spectacle.
Kendall and Everton will travel back to Merseyside no doubt pleased with the
point but Leeds will see this as two points dropped.
Teams:
Leeds: Martyn, Halle, Wetherall, Radebe, Robertson, Kelly,
Haaland, Bowyer (Hasselbaink 73), Ribeiro, Wallace, Kewell.
Subs Not Used: Maybury, Molenaar, Lilley, Beeney.
Booked: Radebe.
Everton: Myhre, Ward, Short, Watson, Tiler, Hinchcliffe,
Farrelly, Williamson, Speed, Ferguson, Barmby.
Subs Not Used: Bilic, Cadamarteri, Ball, Oster, Southall.
Booked: Farrelly, Speed, Hinchcliffe.
Att: 34,869
Ref: P A Durkin (Portland).
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