Bournemouth 2 – 1 Everton
Everton looked to have salvaged an unlikely point against a poor Bournemouth side when Beto profited from a goalkeeping bungle to grab a late equaliser, only for Seamus Coleman to score a calamitous own goal in stoppage time.
Despite having had three weeks off to recharge and reset for the final 10 games of the season, the Toffees had been largely inept during a scrappy encounter at Vitality Stadium and fell behind to Dominic Solanke’s 64th-minute header.
That appeared to be that, with Sean Dyche’s men looking bereft of quality and ideas, but when the Cherries’ goalkeeper dropped a fairly routine cross, Beto was there to give Everton a much-needed boost.
However, the collective failure of three players to deal with a cross ended with the skipper chesting the ball into his own net – a stomach-churning illustration of the calamity the team has become under Dyche’s failing tenure.
The manager mostly stuck with the same personnel as before the recent hiatus but opted for Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front from the start this time and deployed Ben Godfrey at left-back in place of Vitalii Mykolenko who had flu.
Coleman made only his third start of the season on the other side of defence and found himself busy in the early going as Bournemouth started on the front foot.
Antoine Semenyo stung Jordan Pickford’s palms with a drive inside three minutes and Lewis Cook blazed the rebound over while, shortly afterwards, Justin Kluivert tried to flick home a near-post delivery from a corner but the Blues’ keeper was there again to block it.
Everton’s first chance fell to Calvert-Lewin from Abdoulaye Doucouré’s lay-off and the striker ignored Jack Harrison to his right before seeing a shot deflect heavily and loop over the crossbar.
And after the visitors got lucky at one end when James Tarkowski’s header hit Semenyo in the six-yard box and rebounded over Pickford’s bar, Neto was called into action at the other to deny Calvert-Lewin following Everton’s best chance of the first half.
A deep Pickford free-kick came off Tarkowski’s heel and fell invitingly for DCL but his placed, side-foot shot was palmed behind by the keeper.
Dwight McNeil dragged a decent opportunity to test Neto from 20-odd yards wide while Jarrad Branthwaite came close to conceding a penalty when Tyler Adams threatened to wriggle free of him in the box but the incident ended with Cook’s shot being charged down at the back post.
What had, in many respects, been a dreadfully turgid first-half display by Everton was crying out for a change either in approach or personnel at the break but Dyche sent his team out for the second period unchanged.
Once again, it was Bournemouth who carried the early threat as Marcus Tavernier forced another diving save from Pickford with a low effort but there should have been a higher-profile check for a spot-kick at the other end a few minutes later.
Calvert-Lewin appeared to be clipped in the same way that Alejandro Garnacho was by Tarkowski at Old Trafford three weeks ago but the striker barely appealed for a penalty, referee Sam Barrott gave nothing and if VAR Michael Oliver gave it more than a cursory glance, it was not communicated inside the stadium.
It was almost rendered academic three minutes later when Everton, displaying a rare moment of invention from a set-piece, executed a one-two short-corner routine between McNeil and Harrison, with the latter striking the post with a shot from the angle that almost ricocheted in off Chris Mepham.
Just past the hour mark, Tavernier lashed a good chance wide of goal before Lloyd Kelly was introduced and, two minutes later, had supplied Solanke with the opener.
The substitute hooked a dangerous cross into Everton’s six-yard box where Solanke stole in between Tarkowski and Godfrey to easily power home a barely challenged header.
Dyche eventually withdrew the disappointing Doucouré and Harrison for Andre Gomes and Ashley Young and, a few minutes later, took off Amadou Onana in favour of Beto but it initially looked more likely that the Cherries would extend their lead than the hapless Toffees get back into the contest.
Solanke almost benefited from a half-hearted punch by Pickford but, thankfully, the ball bounced off him and dropped past the post.
Then, with three minutes left of the 90 came what should have been Everton’s salvation when McNeil sent in a deep cross, Neto climbed above Beto to claim but spilled the ball and the Portuguese had the simple task of knockin the loose ball home.
Six minutes of stoppage time seemed to give the Blues ample time to try and fashion a winner but they saw a precious point evaporate in horrible fashion before they could even try.
Godfrey failed to stop a cross from the Bournemouth right, Pickford and Jarrad Branthwaite hesitated as it bounced a couple of yards in front of him and into the unfortunate Coleman whose apparent attempt to chest it back into the path of his keeper ended up in the back of his own net.
The blunt truth is that this was an unacceptably poor performance by a team that has lost its way under Dyche who has now equalled Mike Walker’s club-record run of 12 games without a League victory.
The “Silver Fox” won his next one but was righlty sacked anyway and it’s hard to escape the feeling that were there any leadership at the helm of Farhad Moshiri’s chaotic regime or any money to pay the compensation required, Dyche would be nervously awaiting a phone call this evening.
He once quipped as Burnley boss that Frank Lampard’s Everton had forgotten how to win but, under his stewardship, the current group of players look utterly bereft of how to coherently get up the ball up the pitch to create chances, let alone score enough goals to win games.
On this evidence, a trip to Newcastle on Tuesday evening offers almost nothing to engender optimism that Dyche won’t break Walker’s abysmal record, that Everton can get anything out of the game or that this club is doing anything other than sleepwalking into another desperate last-day bid to avoid relegation.