Dyche despairs after Coleman’s costly blunder
SEAMUS COLEMAN left Everton still mired in relegation trouble with the kind of own goal that suggests their season is cursed.
The Toffees skipper chested the ball past a horrified Jordan Pickford in injury-time, just four minutes after boss Sean Dyche must have felt his team had salvaged a point.
Dominic Solanke (below) had given the Cherries a secondhalf lead before Everton substitute Beto spooked Neto, Bournemouth’s keeper, into dropping the ball on a plate for the striker to score an 87th-minute equaliser.
But as the clock ticked down, Coleman dithered over a cross from Adam Smith.
The ball struck the Irishman in the midriff and squirmed past Pickford.
Everton winger Jack Harrison backed skipper Coleman afterwards.
He said: “It’s tough for Seamus. He puts his heart and soul into this team and gives everything. Seamus is a great captain and great leader. He will bounce back.
“We just have to find a way to win. Our performances have been good but it’s getting the results which are vital for us.”
Victory means Bournemouth are all but safe and boss Andoni Iraola said: “I thought we were quite smart not to make mistakes and we had the clear chances.
“We deserved to win. One mistake for them, one mistake for us.”
Managers talk a lot these days about “controlling the controllables” but the threat of another points deduction and the stalled takeover are crushing the life out of Dyche’s players.
Here, they tapped at Bournemouth’s defence but apart from the error from Neto that gave up, Everton were never forceful enough.
They created some half-chances for Dominic Calvert-lewin but they wear the haunted look of a team that has now gone 12 matches without a win in the league – equalling their worst previous run of 1994.
Calvertlewin twice went close in a poor opening half-hour, while Antoine Semenyo hit the post just before the interval after Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite had tangled with Tyler Adams.
The second half was an improved affair, underlined when the impressive Solanke got between two Everton defenders to head home past Pickford from Lloyd Kelly’s cross in the 64th minute. BOURNEMOUTH: Neto 7; Smith 6, Mepham 6, Zabarnyi 7, Kerkez 6 (Kelly 63, 7); Adams 6, Cook 7; Semenyo 7, Kluivert 6 (Billing 74), Tavernier 7 (Ouattara 74); Solanke 8 (Unal 85). EVERTON: Pickford 7; Coleman 6, Tarkowski 6, Branthwaite 6, Godfrey 6; Harrison 6 (Young 72), Onana 7 (Beto 79), Doucoure 6 (Gomes 72), Garner 7, Mcneil 6; Calvert-lewin 6.
MAN OF THE MATCH: DOMINIC SOLANKE – Works hard, links play smoothly, and finishes with authority. REF: S Barrott ATT: 11,207