Season › 2013-14 › News Lethargic Blues drop two more points , 9 November, 0comments | Jump to most recent Crystal Palace 0 - 0 Everton Everton slogged their way through another goalless draw as Crystal Palace arrested a seven-match losing streak with their first clean sheet of the campaign. The Blues controlled the game with an astonishing 72% of the possession but were let down by a depressing lack of urgency and an absence of any punch in the final third that resulted in just two shots on target all afternoon. Surprisingly it was Palace, overseen by caretaker boss Keith Millen, who spurned three gilt-edged chances as they opened up Everton's usually stingy defence, Kagisho Dikgacoi missing arguably the best of them with an embarrassingly mis-timed header in the first half. Jerome Thomas also forced a great save from Tim Howard with an attempt to curl one under the crossbar. For Everton, Romelu Lukaku narrowly missed connecting with Leon Osman's sliced shot after 12 minutes, Kevin Mirallas forced the only real save from Speroni with an excellent low shot after 21, while Osman shot straight at the ‘keeper in the waning moments of the first half. Article continues below video content The assault from the Blues after a lethargic first period never really materialised after the break and though they looked more threatening following the introduction of Gerard Deulofeu and Ross Barkley for Mirallas and Osman after 55 minutes, they didn't manage a single shot on target, Jagielka coming the closest to breaking the deadlock with a header off the bar from a corner late on. Thomas, meanwhile, had earlier passed up another great chance for Palace when he sprung the offside trap but chipped into the side-netting with just Howard to beat. A second-successive 0-0 draw — the fourth of the campaign so far — represents more crucial dropped points but Everton extended their unbeaten run to four games.Roberto Martinez was disappointed with the result and lamented the fact that his team couldn't find "that little bit of sharpness in the final third" against a well-organised Palace defence. "In the first half, we had a couple of half chances and you probably feel that we should have made better decisions," Martinez said after the game. "We probably allowed ourselves to get a little frustrated. When the ball went out it took ages to come back in and it was that sort of game; very stop-start. We couldn't get into a position to break them down in their defensive set-up." The Spaniard took heart from another clean sheet, however, pointing out that when you're as focused as his team were on trying to break the opposition down, "you're vulnerable to a quick break or at a dead-ball situation you can lose a clean sheet. It's important when you don't win that you keep doing the right things and keep a clean sheet. "You can understand our disappointment," he continued. "When you have all the play we had, you need to be able to make that final pass with a little bit of know-how to break the other team down." Quotes or other material sourced from ToffeeWeb Match Reports Match summary and reaction Match report – "Frustration" About these ads © ToffeeWeb