Motherwell 1 - 1 Everton

, 21 July, 17comments  |  Jump to most recent
Third pre-season game ends in a draw
Everton continue their pre-season Scottish tour with a trip to Motherwell, where James McFadden was on the bench as a guest of the home side. Everton have promised better service for the live coverage on evertontv, which started before the kick-off and was far better than for the Dundee game.

The game was a testimonial for Stevie Hammell of Motherwell who are manged by Stuart McCall and fielded one-time Everton trainee Adam Cummins. David Moyes named a farily strong squad, with most of his attacking strength starting on the bench, Tim Cahill returning to the side in his all too familiar role behind Vellios. Ross Barkley was relegated to the Reserves who are set to play Airdrie a little later.

Everton looked up for it from the off, pass and move being the order of the day as they put early pressure on the Motherwell goal. But the home side were also keen to get involved, with an early shot from distance on Howard's goal. A mistake by Neville allowed the to attack again.

Cahill got a good cross in from wide left and Osman did well to reach it but could only head over. In another attack, Vellios did well to turn his man but Fellaini didn't control it and Anichebe curled his shot just wide. That livened things up at the other end when Higdon should really have opened the scoring. Law also had a good chance and forced a save from Tim Howard.

Fellaini seemed off the pace and was called for clipping a player's heels and giving up a dangerous free-kick that Fellaini then deflected over the bar, and it was Fellaini who headed away the resulting corner.

The game settled a bit but Tim Cahill was looking to get back into form, and tried a good shot along the ground that forced a stretched save from Randolph.

At the other end, Anichebe swung in a good cross and it was the very tall Shane Duffy at the far post who headed it down past Randoplh to open the scoring.

Coleman then had a couple of good shots on goal, and Anichebe on the other wing was lively and keen to impress.

At half-time, David Moyes rang the changes, bringing on Gibson, Junior, Rodwell and Jelavic, for Osman, Anichebe, Cahill and Vellios.

It took a while for the Everton changes to really settle and it was Motherwell who eventually took advantage, when Nicky Law smacked a sweet left-footed shot that beat Tim Howard all hands down. Higdon then hit the post with Howard beaten again.

Jelavic got a chance to run on and shoot but is effort was very weak. Then a nicely worked move saw Fellaini feed Junior who cut the ball back across goal perfectly fro Rodwell to score... only he hit it straight at Adam Cummins standing on the Motherwell goalline!

On the hour mark, James McFadden was one of three changes by Motherwell. And after that, it was time for Steven Naismith to make his first appearance in an Everton shirt, along with Johnny Heitinga. They replaced Fellaini and Distin, respectively.

Motherwell continued to have the better of the play, as Law drove one just wide of Howard's goal after good build-up play by McFadden. At the other end, Coleman set up Naismith to score but Hollis saved his shot, with game now continually broken up by subs from the home side.

Motherwell continued to press, winning a couple of free-kicks, one of which required a good save by Howard from Hateley. Rodwell had a poke fro the Blues but it was always going wide, and a good game all round ended up tied at 1-1.

Motherwell:

Randolph (46' Hollis);
Hammell, Law, Hateley, Humphrey;
Ojamaa, Higdon, Murphy, Lasley;
Ramsden, Cummins.

Everton:

Howard;
Coleman, Duffy, Distin (69' Heitinga), Hibbert;
Neville, Osman (46' Gibson), Fellaini (69' Naismith), Anichebe (46' Rodwell);
Cahill (46' Junior), Vellios (46' Jelavic).
Subs: [all used].

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Reader Comments (17)

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John Nugent
1 Posted 21/07/2012 at 11:46:59
http://www.sportz-for-free.org/channel2.html
Barry Stevens
2 Posted 21/07/2012 at 15:33:22
Just got in from work. How was the feed? Is it worth stumping the money for Friday's game or was it still pony?
Noel Early
3 Posted 21/07/2012 at 16:49:23
Did Coleman play right back? How did he do?

Nice to see Duffy get another run out... maybe Heitinga could go on his way if this lad shows continued improvement.
Tom Bowers
4 Posted 21/07/2012 at 17:28:42
Well, three games no defeats but games to get a little tougher with Galatasary, Athens and Malaga to come.
However results are not that important as players start to get fitter and Moyes shuffles the deck. Hopefully he doesn't start the season with the same old tired selections and tactics
Jamie Barlow
5 Posted 21/07/2012 at 18:14:14
Noel, Coleman did play right back and had a good game going forward. Didn't see much of him defensively.

Duffy had another good game. He looks a solid centre half and doesn't seem to have let his terrible injury cause him any grief when throwing himself into tackles.

Tom, I think Galatasary have pulled out of the tournament so I don't know what's going to go on there or who will replace them.

John Sankey
6 Posted 21/07/2012 at 18:22:12
I must say I like the look of Francisco Junior, he reminds me of Ramires.
John Nugent
7 Posted 21/07/2012 at 18:26:56
Barry #989

I think EvertonTV is pot luck whether it works or not.

The first game wouldn't work for me and today's game was freezing every minute.

Did anyone try any links? And were they any good?

James Stewart
8 Posted 21/07/2012 at 19:17:54
@12 I also thought Junior looked a lot like Ramires (who is an exceptional player). Looks like a great prospect.
Paul Thompson
9 Posted 21/07/2012 at 19:14:59
I drove over from Edinburgh to watch the game today. Given who came on in the second half (Jelavic, Naismith, Rodwell, Heitinga, Junior etc), I thought we'd pull away from our 1-0 half time lead. We didn't, which was disappointing. Why? Who knows, though when Fellaini went off, we lost our best and most energetic player.

Motherwell had a lot of the ball throughout the game, basically because they had a lot of midfield posession. Cahill was way off the pace in the first half and Rodwell looked lost on the left when he came on, both of which is not surprising. Jelly was lethargic and missed an easy chance.

Naismith, considering he's been out injured for so long, looked sharp in his cameo last 20 minutes. Junior wasn't great, but I like the way he moves the ball quickly. All-in-all, a decent run out but I didn't learn much new; however, it's early days.

Jamie Yates
10 Posted 21/07/2012 at 19:35:49
Junior has that sort of low centre of gravity à la Ramires, he looked busy today, quick feet and wants to find a pass. Motherwell had upped their game second half and were quickly closing us down in midfield but he didn't shy away from challenges and was always head up, trying to keep ther ball moving. Here's hoping he could be a player for us in future.
Phil Sammon
11 Posted 22/07/2012 at 02:13:59
For me, there is something about Junior that I absolutely love. I've said this before but he's like Ramires and Manny combined. It's all potential right now but it's great to know we have that kind of player on our books. At the risk of facing the ToffeeWeb wrath – Get In Moyes!
Barry Stevens
12 Posted 22/07/2012 at 10:44:06
Cheers John. I think I'll give it a miss then.
Tom Bowers
13 Posted 22/07/2012 at 16:31:34
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and it remains to be seen if some of these fringe players will make sufficient progress to warrant a first-team run out in the real world. We all know about Moyes with his stubbornness and over-caution in not leaving out his favourites even when they are playing poorly.

This young lad Junior may fall foul of this, no matter how well he plays in these friendlies. Remember when Rooney scored that winner on his debut many moons ago? Although everyone raved about him, Moyes still kept him in and out of the team in favour of his pets at that time, despite the results being mediocre.

Young players can quickly become disillusioned when they know they have something but can't get a proper chance when other players ahead of them are not playing well.
Tony Heslop
14 Posted 23/07/2012 at 11:45:28
How many Blues were there at Motherwell and, indeed, at Thistle?
Barry Stevens
15 Posted 23/07/2012 at 11:49:06
Tom Bowers

What goal on his debut? Do you mean on the pre-season tour of Scotland? If so I think you will find Rooney started the first game of the season vs Spurs. I've stated before that I'm not pro-Moyes but some of things people come out with on here is laughable.
Jimmy Kelly
16 Posted 23/07/2012 at 13:04:57
Tom, the 'mediocre' results you mention got us to 7th in that season. Our second top 10 finish in a decade.

Also you've fallen for the media favourite lie of believing that Rooney's goal was on his debut. It wasn't. It wasn't even his first senior goal. Don't let the facts get in the way though.

Brian Cleveland
17 Posted 23/07/2012 at 17:15:11
I know I'm a bit late off the mark here, but has anyone else got a link to see the highlights or goals for the Motherwell game? The one John mentioned in #966 doesn't seem to be working...

Thanks


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