Before the game we knew that this was a ‘must not lose’ fixture, but lose it we did, with Séamus Coleman’s 64th minute goal being enough to secure the points for Everton.
Before the game there was a protest march from the Everton fans which finished behind the main stand, and I couldn’t resist sneaking round there to take a look. Some posts on Everton fans’ forums thought that staging a demo on a matchday might distract their team, but unfortunately there was no sign of that when the match got underway.
For the second year running the fixture list sent us to Goodison a few weeks after they had changed manager, just over 12 months since we crumbled in front of a crowd who were then full of enthusiasm for Fat Frank. I did hope that Everton’s surrender in the local derby on Monday showed the new manager bounce had already gone this time, but Sean Dyche had got his side sufficiently fired up to out-battle us throughout the 90 minutes.
Michael Skubala opted for an unchanged starting line-up, resisting the temptation to bring Cooper back in and move Wöber to left back. So Firpo stayed in place, and to be fair he had one of his better games, helped by Everton’s inability to exploit the space he left on the left side of our defence on the many occasions he ventured out of position.
We began quite well with a couple of corners in the first few minutes, but it wasn’t long before Everton started to dominate possession, thankfully without doing a great deal with it. Maupay was ineffective as ever, and they seemed to forget that without Calvert-Lewin they were without a big target man, so whenever they launched a ball into the area it wasn’t hard for Meslier to come out and claim it.
It took them half an hour to create a decent chance, which came when Gueye skipped past Wöber rather too easily, but when the ball was pulled back to Onana just outside the area, the Everton man got right underneath it and sent his shot over the bar. Our own efforts to get forward weren’t a great deal better, with Everton being very quick to get players behind the ball whenever they lost possession, which I think is called a ‘low block’ these days.
If you’re going to be able to play through such a well-organised defence the passing has to be spot on, but our moves kept breaking down through misplaced through balls. Gnonto was getting visibly frustrated as Colman was doing a great job on him, and it looks like the surprise element has already gone. Opposition managers now know young Willie is our main attacking threat and make sure their teams are quick to close him down.
Bamford sent a shot just wide, and that was about as close as we came all day, while Everton twice went close in the latter stages of the first half. Meslier came out for a corner but didn’t get the ball, and after Coady’s header was cleared off the line by Wöber, the ball was crossed back in to Maupay, but McKennie took his turn to make a goal line clearance, and the ball was scrambled away.
Then Tarkowski got to the ball above a clutch of defenders at another corner, but Meslier was able to stretch out and make the save. And some of our players finally showed a bit of fight just before the break, but by taking things a little too literally. It stemmed from a seemingly innocuous incident right in front of the Leeds section of the crowd, when McNeil clattered into Adams from behind.
Adams took exception to a little shove as tried to get up, and jumped up to have a go back at McNeil. In the ensuing melee McNeil was shoved into an advertising hoarding, and I feared that once VAR got involved we could end up with a red card, but the ref settled for two yellow cards apiece. McKennie had sneaked over to the far side of the field to take water from the Leeds bench in the hope that the ref would forget his involvement, but he was summoned back to the spot to collect his punishment.
McKennie is on the way to collecting the 10 bookings needed for a suspension, despite only joining us in January, as that was his third in successive games. Tempers hadn’t quite cooled down when the half-time whistle sounded a minute later, and there was a bit more pushing and shoving as the players went down the tunnel, perhaps involving some of the Leeds coaching staff.
There was one change at the break, with Wöber replaced by Kristensen. The Austrian had needed treatment early on, and it later turned out that he’d suffered a dislocated shoulder, so he’d done well to keep going. This meant that Ayling had to move inside to central defence when the more logical change might have been to send Cooper on as a like-for-like sub, so perhaps he isn’t fully fit yet.
The second period saw Everton still on top, with McNeil shooting wide and a few other shots being sent straight at Meslier. We did manage to have a promising break of our own, but when Harrison crossed Bamford mis-kicked completely when the ball came to him in a good position in front of goal. And just when I thought we might be getting into the game Everton managed to score the only goal of the game in the 64th minute.
A long ball was played down the Everton right, and Colman was able to reach it ahead of Koch to hook the ball into the area. Meslier had come off his line anticipating a cross, and for a second I thought there was no danger as he stood and watched the ball go by, so it must be going wide. But no, it ended up in the far corner of the net.
It would be really annoying to lose a game like this to a fluke, but Colman later claimed it was an intentional shot rather than a mis-hit cross, having seen Meslier leaving a tempting gap. And to be fair, that might be true, as there were no Everton players in the box, so he would have had little option but to try a shot, even from such a tight angle.
After going behind Leeds did start to show a bit more urgency, with Aaronson coming on Summerville after the young Dutchman had struggled to make an impact. But Harrison sent two free kicks out of play from decent positions, and frustration began to grow in the Leeds section of the crowd.
When the attendance was announced there was a chant of "sack the board” from the Leeds section, and it was clear if that was a sarcastic comment about Everton’s board or a comment on ours. Perhaps the answer came with the "Orta, it’s time to go” chant a few minutes later, a reference to his struggle to attract a new manager at this crucial stage of the season.
Rutter came on for McKennie with 12 minutes left, and he ran around enthusiastically and managed to have a shot from the edge of the area, though their defence was in position to block it. And finally Greenwood replaced Harrison, which at least gave us some better deliveries from set pieces. But none of this was enough to force an equaliser, and Everton were close to sealing the win with a second goal as time ran out.
Sims got the ball on the right and spotted Doucouré racing through the middle, but thankfully the Mali international didn’t take the shot with his weaker left foot and knocked it onto his right as he tried to cut inside. This the Leeds defence time to race back and surround him to block his efforts to get a shot in, so the moment passed.
Four minutes of injury time were announced, but Everton were able to get the ball down the other end for most of this period, to ensure that we couldn’t snatch the win from them right at the end. And just to spoil our Saturday even more, we learned that both Southampton and Bournemouth had won away from home, just when I thought I had them safely pencilled in as clubs who would finish below us.
Those three 1-0 results have left us sitting very uncomfortably in 19th place, only one point above rock bottom, which is where we’ll be if we lose next week as well. The latest plan had been for Skubala was going to remain in charge for the rest of the season if the Everton and Southampton games had gone well, but I’m guessing that won’t happen now.
For the first time I’m now thinking we will go down, rather than merely being in a relegation scrap we can get out of. We need to get the head coach situation sorted out very quickly, else it won’t be too long before we start seeing some demonstrations of our own at Elland Road.