Everton vs Leicester City match report: Late Matthew Upson own goal salvages draw

Everton 2 Leicester 2

Romelu Lukaku celebrates after his header goes in Matthew Upson (GETTY IMAGES)

They were giving out blue noses before kick-off here on Sunday to mark the birthday of Everton In The Community. On the pitch, red noses might have been more appropriate for the sloppy home team as Everton’s Jekyll-and-Hyde season lurched back to the dark side.

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Three days after winning impressively at Young Boys in the Europa League, the Merseysiders came close to suffering an embarrassing home defeat by the Premier League’s bottom club Leicester City after two Tim Howard gaffes led to David Nugent and Esteban Cambiaso overturning Steven Naismith’s opening goal.

Although an 88th-minute own goal by Matthew Upson rescued a point, it did not stop the boos at the final whistle and Everton’s manager, Roberto Martinez, admitted that there was a fear factor in his team’s play in the league.

“We need to find the enjoyment we show in the Europa League, [when] we look forward to facing the opposition and don’t carry any sort of expectations,” said manager Martinez. Everton, 12th in the table, have now dropped 13 points after Europa League games, though their form has barely been any better when they have not had midweek distractions. They have managed only three home league victories all season and, though Martinez cited once again yesterday the psychological damage of losing leads in the opening week of the season against Leicester and Arsenal, those 2-2 draws happened six months ago.

This latest deflating draw might have been a different story had Romelu Lukaku, scorer of a hat-trick against Young Boys, not missed several clear opportunities, but defeat would have been harsh on Leicester. It was two weeks ago Nigel Pearson very nearly lost his job as manager but his team are evidently still playing for him and he left Goodison Park ruing two points dropped.

“The dressing room is disappointed,” said Pearson. “They played well but we’ve got to reproduce performances like today and the Arsenal one [a 2-1 defeat] and they have got to be translated into three-point gains.” Although the draw ended a four-match losing run for Leicester, they remain four points adrift at the bottom.

Pearson fielded three centre-backs but his side did not just sit back and defend. Pacy winger Jeffrey Schlupp was a threat from the off and had a hat-trick of opportunities, notably at the start of the second period when he drove wide after Howard had parried a Matty James shot into his path.

Everton’s first-half performance was sluggish but they did create a couple of openings, Lukaku blazing over from Seamus Coleman’s pull-back and Ross Barkley firing equally high and wide after Wes Morgan had got in the way of a Lukaku shot.

They improved after Martinez had sent on Darron Gibson and Christian Atsu in place of Barkley and Muhamed Besic, with Gibson involved in the lead-up to the opening goal. He fed Lukaku, who held off Upson and worked the ball on to Naismith, whose scuffed shot went under Morgan’s attempted block and crept inside the near post.

That was Pearson’s cue for his own double substitution. Within two minutes of taking the field, Jamie Vardy accelerated away from James McCarthy and his low cross was spilt by Howard at the near post, the ball deflecting off John Stones into the path of his fellow substitute Nugent for the boyhood Evertonian to tap in. “We needed to freshen it up and the players had an impact,” said Pearson.

Howard was at fault again seven minutes later when he flapped at a Danny Simpson cross and Vardy laid the ball across for Cambiasso to score. Martinez refused to blame the American goalkeeper, making his third appearance since displacing Joel Robles on his return from injury. “I don’t see Tim as directly responsible for the draw,” said the Spaniard. “If you look at the two goals we have lots of bodies in the box; we should be more composed.”

There was a lack of composure further upfield from Lukaku. He fired over at 1-1 after McCarthy’s cute flick had put him clear and later miscontrolled another through ball when through on goal. To his credit he played a part in the eventual equaliser, though, diving to get a touch to Atsu’s cross before Upson nodded the ball on past Mark Schwarzer.