Coleman lifts the spirits on Goodison Park debut

Everton 2 Tottenham 2:THE TORTURE for Harry Redknapp did not end with Tim Howard's injury-time penalty save from Jermain Defoe, potentially a pivotal moment in Everton's season and certainly an early victory for the US over England in the phoney war before June 12th in Rustenburg. Having hiked several floors to the top of the Main Stand at Goodison Park, blowing his cheeks as rapidly as Tottenham Hotspur blew a two-goal lead, Redknapp delayed his own comments to listen to Sky's analysis of an enthralling contest.

“So,” Richard Keys asked Andy Gray, “let’s look at naughty Tottenham.” Redknapp, we can report, was not amused.

There are added demands that come with Champions League expectation and withstanding an exuberant Everton comeback, comprising an immense home debut from the Republic of Ireland under-21 international Séamus Coleman, adventurous substitutions by David Moyes and a raucous Goodison Park crowd, is one. Ruthlessness is another. But for Defoe’s inability to beat the US goalkeeper from 12 yards in the 93rd minute, Tottenham would have marched on scarred but victorious.

Yet Redknapp would not have been fooled. “This was a wasted opportunity,” rued the Tottenham manager, his frustrations rightly stemming not from this remarkable finale but his side’s profligacy at 2-0. They offered Everton a reprieve and Moyes’s injury-hit collection of men and boys grasped it.

Tottenham’s attack of Peter Crouch and Defoe had prospered from the start, as they should have done given the dishevelled state of the Everton defence. Joseph Yobo passed a late fitness test on a hamstring strain but pulled up lame with only 15 minutes gone.

His departure meant a Goodison debut for the former Sligo Rovers defender Coleman and a backline that consisted entirely of full-backs, with Lucas Neill, on his 500th appearance in English football, joining Tony Hibbert at the heart. The pace of Aaron Lennon, the movement of Defoe and the height of Crouch were made to wreak havoc in such conditions.

The contest erupted with personal feuds and potential red-card incidents from the 36th minute. The referee, Andre Marriner, had already entered Moyes’s bad books for booking Jack Rodwell for a strong but legitimate tackle on Niko Kranjcar. He then ensured a half-time confrontation with an enraged Everton manager by booking Marouane Fellaini after Benoit Assou-Ekotto, the Tottenham left-back, left his studs showing in a 50-50 challenge with the Belgian midfielder and then raked Tim Cahill’s head.

Two minutes after the restart Tottenham ended Everton’s resistance with a goal of worrying simplicity for Moyes. Lennon crossed to the near post from the right and Hibbert, having adapted superbly to his unorthodox role, left Defoe unmarked at the near post. It was a fatal mistake, Defoe glanced his 13th goal of the season into the roof of the net.

Eleven minutes later Michael Dawson appeared to put the game beyond Everton when more poor marking, this time from Neill, allowed the centre-half to meet Kranjcar’s corner with a diving header beyond Howard. But the home side, prompted by Coleman’s strength in defence and dominance of Gareth Bale when on the attack, recovered superbly.

The substitute Louis Saha gave Everton renewed hope when he volleyed the 21-year-old right-back’s cross in from close range. With four minutes remaining Coleman delivered again, latching on to a poor clearance from Wilson Palacios and teeing up Leighton Baines at the back post. His shot was sailing wide but Cahill, on his 30th birthday, stooped to bring Everton level with his first goal at Goodison this season. The drama was unrelenting.

In the 93rd minute Hibbert ran heavily into Palacios as they pursued Crouch’s knockdown into the area to concede an obvious penalty and put the Honduran in hospital. England then faced USA and the USA won.