Match Summary

A nice summer evening knockabout at David Moyes's old stamping ground....

But some early argy-bargy between Hibbert and Mellor did not bode well, the Preston player coming in with a vicious high kick as Hibbo was shepherding a ball out.  Hibbert reacted and they both went in the book after the obligatory touchline mêlée.

Not long after that bit of fun and the Blues went a goal down... and a pretty soft goal it was to, with Warly picking up an easy ball and deftly beating ___ and Howard with a well-placed shot. 1-0 to Preston.

Then another perhaps much more serious disaster:   An innocuous challenge saw Vaughan hit the ground and writhe in agony, clutching his shoulder.  Hopefully 'just' a dislocation, but he was stretchered off after barely 15 mins!!!  James Beattie cam on in his place, to partake of yet another big chance to impress (after we were reliably informed by one source that he had definitely been sold to Blackburn Rovers for £3.5M earlier this week!)

Everton had a couple of chances but the defensive mistakes continued to be a feature, with Mellor blasting one at Howard after a mistake by Stubbs and Lescott.

After half-time, Neville came on for Stubbs, and new signing Phil Jagielka made his first unofficial appearance in a Blue Everton shirt. 

Not much to report until near the end, when Victor Anichebe latched on to a loosely defended ball, and drove it nicely beyond the goalie and into the net despite being driven wide. A lovely execution. Nice goal!

Michael Kenrick

Match Report

WTF did I just watch! I know it's only a pre-season friendly but surely it's still a game you would want and expect Everton to win.

The first half was just a shambles. I just hope the injury to Vaughan doesn't keep him out for too long. A lot of the players didn't look at the races, too much sideways passing for my liking and no real purpose going forward, if we're honest, Preston played much the better football. They pegged us back for most of the first half and deserved their goal.

Vaughan gets injured in an inocuous challenge, so on trots Beattie, he may look like he's shed some weight but he's still got the touch of a baby elephant! Lescott was in good form as usual and looked different class. The tempo was steady but Everton were just content to pass the ball from side to side and give the ball away in the final third along with some truly woeful long range shooting, the highlight being one by AVM that ended up going down the stairwell next to Row Z LOL!! Half-time comes not soon enough.

Paul Simpson does as promised prematch by fielding a totally different Preston XI in the second half, could Everton do the same and stay in the match? Thought not. A few changes in the line-up Jagielka for Stubbs, Neville for Carsley second half and game on. The second half started in the same vein as the first with lots of scrappy play but the most purpose coming from Preston nothing of any note or goalmouth threat from Everton until about 70 mins in when Jagielka escaped his marker from an Arteta corner but headed straight at the keeper, almost a dream debut!

Preston nearly made it 2-0 on two occasions due to some clever play and inept defending from Everton, firstly Ormerod's shot is deflected off Lescott and onto the bar only to bounce back to an unmarked Preston player to head over with the goal gapping. Not content to learn from this, Everton then proceded to give another Preston player who's names escaped me time to turn and shoot forcing a touch from Howard to push it out for a corner.

Everton then started too try to play football with some urgency and started to look more dangerous at the other end, Anichebe latched onto a ball by Anderson and forced a smart save from the keeper and couldn't quite get the second bite of the cherry.

Time was ticking on and Everton were looking like they were going to suffer an embarrassing defeat, Neville produced a Geoff Thomasesque moment when just outside the Preston box on the right and looked primed to shoot but decided what looked like trying to lob the keeper only for the ball to spoon off his foot and it ended up 20 yards behind him and didn't even trickle out for a throw! LOL!!

Everton were trying to force an equalizer and eventually managed a goal a well taken goal at that through the hard working and industrious Anichebe to save the teams blushes. Everton then went in search of a winner and Neville this time connected with a shot that looked destined for the top right corner only for the keeper to spoil the party. Then another chance from a corner delivered by Arteta from the right and Anderson da Silva forces a smart save from the keeper only for the follow up by Anichebe to be blocked by the onrushing defender. The ref blows the final whistle to leave me feeling there's much work to be done from the whole squad and time for DM to get his thumb out and get some more creativity from the midfield. COYB!

Brendan Fox

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