When you are in Everton's perilous position, you have to be thankful for small
mercies.
A season of turmoil, with them rooted in the Premiership relegation dogfight,
has at the very least now produced stability at the back.
Norwegian keeper Thomas Myhre made an impressive home debut and kept his
second clean sheet in his two games for the club since deposing Neville
Southall.
Not that the Crazy Gang tried too hard to find a way past the £800,000 new
boy. They sat back, inviting Everton to create something - and that's where the
problem lies!
It was also the fourth successive game that Everton have failed to score, and
boss Howard Kendall threw in 18-year-old Danny Cadamarteri up front in a tiny
tots forward partnership with Nicky Barmby.
Barmby ran himself ragged, Cadamarteri had the three best chances of the game
and failed with the lot.
No Slaven Bilic or Duncan Ferguson - both suspended - meant a reliance on
quick, nippy but small front men, and in the end it failed to force Wimbledon
into any significant errors.
Kendall's men got a grateful point, but it is not enough to really believe
that Everton have turned the tide. There was plenty of effort, but at times it
was hard to imagine a grimmer offering for Everton's hard pressed fans.
After a week of turmoil which included a fiery AGM and the news that Kendall
has to sell before he can buy, the manager did well to galvanise his side into
action.
But it was poor stuff, against a Wimbledon team more intent on containing and
subduing their opponents.
First half chances could be counted on one hand. A Barmby corner was headed
out for Danny Williamson to lash back over the bar from 20 yards, while Barmby
got on the end of a long crossfield ball from Williamson to angle his shot
wide.
Marcus Gayle did get the ball into the Everton net, only for it to be
disallowed for pushing, and Cadamarteri created an opening for Gareth Farrelly
to send fizzing inches over from the edge of the box.
Everton's following were so numbed they could not even muster a "Johnson
out" as the teams trooped off at the break.
Things hardly improved much in the second period. In front of a crowd of
28,533 - Everton's lowest home league gate of the season - the home side
struggled to make an impact.
After 53 minutes, Hinchcliffe fired in a clever, angled low cross from the
left, and Barmby's diving header was deflected wide.
Two minutes later, Kendall took off Williamson and sent Welsh international
John Oster into attack on the right. Earl Barrett, put up for sale 48 hours
earlier, then replaced the injured Ward before Wimbledon took off young Carl
Cort, giving Andy Clarke a run.
Farrelly had a long range shot that was deflected wide, and then Oster
controlled a clearance headed out to him, but cracked his shot over.
Cadamarteri then produced two fine runs into the box and a couple of shots
that tested Sullivan for the first time.
Cadamarteri then broke down the left, looked to be tripped by Kenny
Cunningham, but opted not to go down, scrambling on to drive his shot into the
side-netting.
Wimbledon, largely through Michael Hughes' efforts, occasionally mounted the
sort of surges that could have produced one telling effort to plunder the
points.
But to Everton's credit they kept going forward, trying to play one-touch
football through a congested midfield. Speed worked his socks off, as did
Hinchcliffe and Farrelly, and long before the end Wimbledon looked to have
settled for the point.
Everton mounted one last charge as Hinchliffe was fed a short free-kick, and
lashed a shot that Sullivan did superbly to turn round the post.
Speed saw two headers blocked and a close range volley deflected for a corner,
with by now everyone in Wimbledon's half bar Myhre.
Teams
Everton: Myhre, Short, Watson, Tiler, Ward (Barrett 61),
Williamson (Oster 55), Speed, Farrelly, Hinchcliffe, Cadamarteri,
Barmby.
Subs Not Used: Gerrard, Ball, Jeffers.
Wimbledon: Sullivan, Cunningham, Kimble, Blackwell, Thatcher,
Earle, Solbakken, Gayle (Jones 87), Hughes, Ardley,
Cort (Clarke 63).
Subs Not Used: Heald, Reeves, Castledine.
Att: 28,533
Ref: G R Ashby (Worcester).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook