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Blues let two more points slip with draw at Swansea

Lyndon Lloyd , 11 April, 0comments  |  Jump to most recent
Swansea City 1 - 1 Everton

Seamus Coleman's ill-advised handball conceded the penalty that denied the Blues a fourth straight win

Everton were on course for a fourth consecutive League victory after Aaron Lennon's opener, but Seamus Coleman's handball gifted Jonjoe Shelvey the chance to grab a point for Swansea from the penalty spot.

Roberto Martinez named an unchanged lineup from the side that started against Southampton last weekend, with Ross Barkley playing off Arouna Kone, and after a decent start by the hosts which saw Tim Howard tip Bafetemi Gomis's shot around the post, the Blues established control of the match.

They battled to carve out clear-cut chances, however, with Kone and Barkley struggling to make an impact but the introduction of Steven Pienaar shortly before the half-hour mark for the injured Leon Osman added a more purposeful dimension to their forward play.

After Coleman had forced the first save from Lukas Fabianski with a low drive that had to be pushed behind, the South African was involved in opening goal. The ball was worked wide on the Everton left and though James McCarthy's cross just eluded Pienaar, it fell to Lennon in the box and he had time to bring it down and knock it into the far corner.

Kone was put in by Pienaar's neat pass at the end of the first half but his shot from the angle was beaten away and the same two players combined in stoppage time when the latter was set up by the former's back-heel but his tame shot was also saved.

Th visitors' grip on the match loosened as the second half wore on and Swansea had begun to exert real pressure as the contest moved past the hour mark. Ki Sung-Yeung sliced over after deftly clipping the ball past Leighton Baines and a penalty claim for Baines's challenge on Wayne Routledge was waved away by referee Michael Oliver.

Everton were not as fortunate seven minutes later, though. Coleman initially went down in his own box under the attentions of Martin Emnes but made contact on the ball with his arm as he waited for the referee's whistle for a foul in his favour. Oliver blew for handball on the Irishman instead and Shelvey made no mistake from the resulting spot kick, sending Howard the wrong way.

Everton briefly rallied in response but were largely restricted to shots from the edge of the box, with Barkley and late substitute Kevin Mirallas failing to really test Fabianski with similar efforts.

McCarthy had the best chance when he popped in the box at the end of a neat interchange but he elected not to shoot and the move broke down. Howard, meanwhile, pushed Gylfi Sigurdsson's late free kick over the bar

The draw keeps Everton in the bottom half of the table and took their tally of points dropped from winning positions to 19 for the season. It also represents a missed opportunity to gain ground on the Swans in the quest to edge them out of eighth place in the table between now and the end of the season.

Full details: ToffeeWeb Match Reports


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