'Next owners will need' - National media react to Everton draw as new stadium point made

Everton extended their unbeaten run to five matches thanks to substitute Beto’s headed goal deep into stoppage-time. But for long periods against Fulham on Saturday evening, Sean Dyche’s side were second best.

Former Blue Alex Iwobi had fired the west London outfit ahead at Goodison Park just after the hour mark and at the time, the hosts could have few complaints.

But in the 94th minute super-sub Beto got his head on to an excellent Ashley Young cross to make it 1-1 and earn Everton what could prove to be an important point.

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Here’s how the national media reported on the action...

Lewis Steele, in the Daily Mail, wrote: "Not for the first time, Marco Silva would have left Merseyside with a bitter sense of regret wondering what might have been.

"Five years after he was sacked at Everton, the Portuguese boss was on the cusp of his fourth win in four visits since taking charge at Fulham and it felt like he had made victories at Goodison Park a belated habit. But just like his Toffees tenure, it ended in disappointment.

"Substitute Beto scored his first league goal of the season – and just fourth overall since his £25million move from Udinese last summer – in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time to salvage Everton a point and make it five games unbeaten for Sean Dyche.

"Fulham were the better team and, with seconds left on the clock, it felt like Alex Iwobi was going to join his manager Silva in haunting his old club after his 61st-minute strike had the Cottagers in eighth and with designs on an improbable – but not impossible – European push this season.

"But in keeping with the theme of Dyche’s tenure, Everton pulled themselves up off the canvas just when it felt like they were down and out. Boom and bust springs to mind. After four losses to start the season, they are now five unbeaten."

Andy Hunter, in the Guardian, wrote: "Marco Silva had shown respect but no mercy to the club that sacked him in 2019 when returning to Goodison Park with Fulham, beating Everton every time. Victory number four was in hand, and deservedly so, when the head of Beto left the Fulham manager cursing the fickle fates of football.

"The Everton substitute’s 94th-minute header salvaged a point for Sean Dyche’s team and extended their unbeaten run to five matches. It was larceny.

"Fulham were superior until stoppage time, controlling the play and their opponent throughout. Like his manager, Alex Iwobi looked set to haunt his former club having scored an excellent goal engineered by Emile Smith Rowe. The visitors’ only concern was not adding to it.

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"A desperate Everton performance called for desperate measures and the sight of Dyche sending central defender Michael Keane up to play alongside Beto, accompanied by the sound of approval from the Gwladys Street End, spoke volumes.

"The old Mick Lyons routine paid off. Fulham were suddenly under sustained pressure for the first time and cracked when Ashley Young brilliantly volleyed Iliman Ndiaye’s deep centre back across goal for Beto to score his first league goal of a frustrating campaign.

"The forward, who is yet to start in the Premier League this season and had not played a minute of football since 17 September, was visibly emotional afterwards. As was Silva. Understandably so."

Chris Bascombe, in the Telegraph, wrote: "Nobody does desperation quite like Everton. At their moments of greatest peril, no club seems to find the last resort such an appealing destination.

"Everton have averted more serious catastrophes than a home defeat to Fulham in their recent history, of course, but the nature of their 94th-minute equaliser seemed to typify so much of what is now embedded in Goodison Park’s DNA.

"The next owners will need to bottle copious amounts of that and scatter the samples around the new arena on Liverpool’s docks.

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"When manager Sean Dyche urged centre-back Michael Keane to become an emergency striker in the 87th minute, the hum of expectation and roars of ‘Keano’ from the Gwladys Street End seemed to make what followed inevitable. A few crosses and penalty-box tussles later and rancour had turned to euphoria – an all-too-familiar emotional swing in this arena.

"Fulham led when former Everton midfielder Alex Iwobi struck beautifully past Jordan Pickford, and had the visitors seen it through their main gripe would have been such a slender margin of victory.

"Instead, Everton played longer and more direct. Never mind turning the clocks going back an hour, this was rewinding back to early Eighties as the defenders launched it for a final test of Fulham’s resolve and Ashley Young crossed for Beto to head his first league goal of the season."

Richard Tanner, in The Times, wrote: "Beto salvaged a dramatic late point for Everton after Alex Iwobi had come back to haunt his former club to complete a day of last-gasp goals in the Premier League.

"The striker headed home an Ashley Young cross from close range in added time to stretch the club’s unbeaten run to five games. Sean Dyche had admitted he didn’t want to sell Iwobi 15 months ago but the £22m fee from Fulham had to be accepted to ease Everton’s financial problems.

"Iwobi showed what his old club were missing by firing home a goal in the 61st minute after a superb run by another former Arsenal player Emile Smith-Rowe. But the much-maligned Beto, on for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, salvaged a point for Everton in the fourth added minute leaving Fulham frustrated at throwing away a victory.

"It was no surprise when they took the lead in the 61st minute. Smith-Rowe’s run from midfield took him past four players before he slipped the ball to Iwobi who ran unchecked to the edge of the box before drilling a right-footed shot low in the corner.

"Desperate Everton sent centre half Keane up front in the closing stages. Keane’s power and physique helped unsettle Fulham’s defence but it was Beto who was the last-gasp hero.

And the ECHO's very own Everton correspondent Joe Thomas wrote: "Marco Silva stood motionless on the touchline. Shoulders slumped, he held one hand to his face. There was little doubt over what he was thinking.

""Sometimes football is difficult to explain,” he said after the final whistle. He will be searching for answers over this result for a long time.

"Everton got out of jail in stoppage time at Goodison Park, Beto’s stooping header sending wild a crowd that had stayed in hope of an equaliser rather than expectation.

"In the forward, about whom speculation of January a departure has grown as his chances have decreased, Sean Dyche found another unlikely hero to stretch this unbeaten run to five matches. Ashley Young and Michael Keane have received their plaudits, the Guinea-Bissau international now has the chance to revel in his.

"It was a goal that meant a lot to a player who is desperate to make an impact in the Premier League. He appeared to head down the tunnel in tears after the final whistle.

"It was a goal that will mean a lot to Dyche too. Before this match he said Silva’s success against him - three times he has left Goodison in celebration since the former Burnley boss arrived on Merseyside - was not about tactics.