With Everton having just beaten Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday and a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers beckoning on Saturday, David Moyes knew he would have dig into his skinny squad to rotate some players while still ensuring he was able to field a side capable of beating League One opposition Mansfield Town.
There was some drama before kickoff with the start of the game postponed by 15 minutes due to delays in fans getting into the stadium. There have been some technology-related issues with the new
electronic season tickets which caused difficulties in supporters being able to pull up their tickets at the turnstiles.
Moyes’ selection on paper looked strong enough to dominate the game, and so it proved. Club captain Seamus Coleman made his first appearance of the season, and indeed his first appearance at the Toffees’ new home Hill Dickinson Stadium. Jordan Pickford got a rare break with Mark Travers starting in goal, and we saw the return of Vitaliy Mykolenko at left back as well.
Idrissa Gueye got a rest too, with James Garner and Harrison Armstrong in the middle. Up front Jack Grealish retained his starting position on the left, with Charly Alcaraz in the middle and Dwight McNeil out wide on the right, and Thierno Barry starting up top again.
As expected, Everton started the game well and were immediately knocking on the Stags’ door. Garner almost threaded a beautiful through-ball through the backline to set Armstrong up with a one-on-one but a defender was able to clear.
The first shot on goal came from Alcaraz, with the Argentine combining well with Grealish on the left. His low attempt from just outside the box was well-saved by goalie Roberts.
Then McNeil was fouled about thirty yards or so from goal, and got up to take the freekick himself. His left-footed strike looked to be dipping in just under the bar but Roberts recovered to tip it over for a corner. The ball came to Tarkowski from the ensuing attempt, but his header only went into the side netting.
In quick succession McNeil sent a shot over the bar and then Grealish blasted an attempt also over. Soon after the half-hour mark, Armstrong had a golden chance to set Barry up for a shot on goal, but chose to go for it himself from a narrow angle only for Roberts to gobble up the ball.
There was one minute added on, but the Blues failed to get another effort on goal and the half ended scoreless.
The Blues started the second half quickly as well, with Grealish stinging Roberts’ palms with a shot straight down the middle. A couple of minutes later though the deadlock was indeed broken, with Charly exchanging passes with Barry and Armstrong who looked to have played himself into a dead end in the opponent’s box. The Argentine looked up and with two defenders between him and the goalie, curled a shot around the outside and back in at the post with Roberts’ full-length dive not enough to get to the ball.
Everton kept pushing immediately after to try to get the killer second goal, but between Roberts and his backline, repelled the home side’s best efforts. With the visitors then making changes to push the Blues, Moyes also got fresh legs onto the pitch.
Tyler Dibling made his Everton debut coming on for Grealish, with Beto replacing the excellent Barry who did everything but score.
Beto saw a shot saved when he should have placed it better, and then headed wide from a Mykolenko cross. With just over a dozen minutes to play, Moyes made more changes, sending on Iliman Ndiaye for McNeil and Tim Iroegbunam for Alcaraz. A couple of minutes later Jake O’Brien came on for Myko.
Ndiaye then shot wide from a central position but with a minute left to play though, Everton did get that much-needed goal. Having seen a counter attack break down up front, the ball came to Garner who delicately placed the ball behind the backline for an overlapping Armstrong, with the youngster this time centering the ball instead of shooting it himself, and Beto had a tap-in into the open net.
With four minutes added on Mansfield were not giving up and kept pushing forward, which resulted in a couple of openings for the Blues to add another, but 2-0 it ended.
