Testing pre-season friendly ends in a draw

Accrington Stanley 1 - 1 Everton

The first pre-season friendly ended in a draw on Tuesday evening at the Wham Stadium against Accrington Stanley after they made Everton work pretty hard in the wet conditions.

Team selection for David Moyes is limited by the delayed return of international players Jordan Pickford, Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueyeand the absence of new signings, Thierno Barry and Mark Travers.

But Jarrad Branthwaite starts, although James Tarkowski is presumably still not sufficiently recovered from his hamstring injury at the end of last season.

James Garner got the game underway but it was Harry Tyrer who first had something to do, parrying a glanced header that was goalbound. Branthwaite's early touches were a little sloppy.

Chermiti had half a chance at the other end before McNeil went down... seemingly injured, but he then jumped up and took the free-kick!

Patterson looked to have a good chance to open the scoring in the 14th minute but he drove his shot wide across goal. 

A great move down the left saw Armstrong play in Mykolenko, whose first-time cross found Chremiti but his shot on goal was straight at the keeper when he had the goal at his mercy and should have scored. That saw the home side go up the other end and lob Tyrer, the ball landing on the roof off the Everton net. 

The best piece of play so far saw Armstrong pick out Iroegbunam, whose excellent cross drew a fine diving header from Chermiti but the keeper was alert enough to parry away his fine goalbound effort. 

Alcaraz dug the ball out on the touchline and played it to Armstrong who tried a lovely curling goalbound shot that the keeper watched all the way and saved well. 

Armstrong then chased down a lost cause and crossed it low to Chermiti who could not turn it in past the Accrington keeper under pressure from a defender. 

A late free-kick for Accrington Stanley ended the half as it was headed wide, bringing to an end a lively and decent competitive first half. 

Just three changes after half-time, with Beto now upfront alongside Chermiti. Alcaraz had a good run down the left but could not pick out a blue shirt with his low cross. 

Tamen looked to have handled the ball as it went out for a corner, and Ward had an easy task nodding the ball through the crowd to score the opening goal. 

McNeil and Alcaraz looked to link up but Beto could not furnish a clean strike. 

Alcaraz tried to get Everton moving forward again but he overhit the pass to Beto who was offside. A couple more changes made after the hour mark. 

Some good play ended with a fine shot from McNeil, but it was saved again. Beto had a chance but the keeper got down well to thwart him.

But Accrington were giving a very competitive performance, and they won another corner that threatened a second goal, the shot hitting Beto and cleared away. 

A strong run by Beto against three defenders won a free-kick that McNeil loped in through the rain but it was half-cleared, Patterson putting the ball back in and winning an Everton corner. But nothing came of it despite a follow-up effort from McNeil.

Issac Heath had a great run from Tyrer's throw-out and he was floored as he entered the Accrington box... penalty!  Beto smacked it into the top corner in front of the soaked bank of 2,336 Evertonians.

Some brilliant play by Justin Clarke saw Heath play in Patterson who fired his shot just over as Everton pushed for a winning goal in the last 10 minutes. Tamen was taken out after some more clever work from Clarke. But McNeil's free kick was really very poor in the circumstances. 

Tim Iroegbunam drove forward strongly but spooned his shot high over the bar and that was Everton's last chance to register a win, but it was a pretty good test for a first pre-season contest. 

Everton: Harry Tyrer, Nathan Patterson, Vitalii Mykolenko (46' William Tamen), Michael Keane, Jarrad Branthwaite (46' Jake O'Brien), James Garner (46' Beto), Tim Iroegbunam, Harrison Armstrong (77' Jenson Metcalfe), Charly Alcaraz (63' Isaac Heath), Dwight McNeil, Youssef Chermiti (63' Justin Clarke).

Subs: Fraser Barnsley,, Braiden Graham, Tyler Onyango, Odin Samuels-Smith, Francis Gomez.

 

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