Everton’s wait for a home Premier League victory took another dire turn after Bournemouth came from behind to win 2-1 on Tuesday night.
A chaotic ten-minute spell saw the hosts go from 1-0 in front and pushing for a second, to trailing 2-1 and down to ten men.
Everton striker Thierno Barry will rue missing two golden chances that could have put the game beyond doubt.
David Moyes’ side were on the front foot for most of the game and will be disappointed to not beat a lacklustre Bournemouth.
Everton made two changes from the team that beat Fulham on the weekend, with Jarrad Branthwaite and Tyrique George starting over Michael Keane and Harrison Armstrong.
George makes his first start since signing for Everton on deadline day.
The Toffees started promisingly, with Iliman Ndiaye netting within 10 minutes, but from an offside position so the score remained a stalemate.
Barry, who has five goals so far this season, should have scored when James Garner’s free kick was bundled by Djordje Petrovic into the path of the French striker, but he lashed the rebound wide.
The Serbian keeper made up for his error just a minute later, as he saved Ndiaye’s close range effort onto the post.
Everton made the breakthrough just before half-time, as Jarrad Branthwaite was fouled in the box by new signing Rayan.
Ndiaye scored his first goal from the penalty spot since his return from the African Cup of Nations.
Another chance went begging early in the second half for Barry, as Ndiaye set the ball on a plate for the striker to score from 6 yards out, but his effort was blocked by Alex Jimenez.
Bournemouth made them pay sharply after, with a cross from Adrien Truffert being met by Rayan, who scored for the second game running.
The Cherries took the lead three minutes later as Jordan Pickford was caught in no man’s land as defender James Hill headed the ball across goal for Amine Adli to head his third goal of the season into an empty net.
The cherry on top of a dismal 10-minute spell for the Toffees was compounded in the 69th minute when Jake O’Brien brought down Adli from a last man position, with referee Andy Madley having no choice but to send the Irish international off.
The last 20 minutes showed some promising signs for the 10 men of Everton, with Beto and Armstrong brought on to try and change the game.
No standout chances arose for the home team, who fought valiantly for an equaliser which never came.
The defeat leaves Everton and Bournemouth level on 37 points in eighth and ninth respectively, and with other teams still yet to play in Game week 26 the Toffees could fall to 10th.
Critically, that makes it just four home wins out of 13 for Moyes’ side, and five home games in a row without a win, going back to December 6th for their last victory against Nottingham Forest.
After the game, Moyes looked dejected and refused to comment on the refereeing decisions that saw his side reduced to 10 men.
He said: “Referees are making their decisions, so we have to go with what they say.
“No opinion, no opinion on referees anymore”.
Moyes says his side only have themselves to blame for not taking their chances.
“We had started the second half and probably missed a couple of half-chances, good chances, to get the second goal, so we only have ourselves to blame, no-one else.”
Everton have a week off to recuperate with no F.A Cup action, before welcoming high-flying Manchester United to the Hill Dickinson on 23rd of February.
(Featured image – Photo by James Costello).
