Stoke 1-1 Everton
Everton picked up another draw in a frustrating afternoon at the Britannia with all the headlines focusing yet again on Fellaini, however this time for all the wrong reasons.
Mistakes and missed chances have been costing the Blues valuable victories all season and this was again evident at Stoke as Everton battled for a 9th draw of the season. After taking a fortunate lead through a Shawcross own goal, Everton missed the chance to put the game beyond the reach of Stoke shortly before half time when Leon Osman somehow shot wide after a lovely free-flowing move from the Toffees. In truth it appeared easier to score than miss, but this is Everton and we always look to make things as difficult as possible.
With the second half 10 minutes old and Everton looking like withstanding the inevitable post half time storm a mistake by Tim Howard let Kenwyne Jones equaliser for the Potters. It was a piece of very poor goalkeeping and on his 200th consecutive Premier League appearance, the USA keeper needs to find some consistent form if Everton are going to push on for 4th place in the Premier League.
The main drama of the afternoon was still to come and we are not going to dwell on the matter for too long. The press are already out in force looking for the death penalty to be re-introduced to punish Fellaini for a needless headbutt on Shawcross. David Moyes spoke after the game and condemned the actions of the Belgium international. Ban expected, matter closed, lets move on and ensure we take the three points home from East London next Saturday.
