Tottenham Hotspur earned a deserved point against Everton at Goodison Park tonight, holding on to draw 1-1 despite being reduced to nine men in the second-half. It was the visitors who opened the scoring late in the first half although Everton had the better scoring chances up until that point. The game was a very physical encounter from start to finish, with Everton's Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen carried off minutes before half-time while Republic of Ireland international Gary Doherty and Gus Poyet both saw red for after the break.
Tottenham made several changes to their line-up for tonight's match with skipper Teddy Sheringham, Darren Anderton and Steffen Iversen all coming into the team in place of Steve Clemence, Sergei Rebrov and Les Ferdinand. Tottenham made the first impression in front of goal, although they had Everton keeper Paul Gerrard to thank for that as he dropped the ball at the feet of Sheringham who failed to connect with the ball before it was hacked away by David Weir.
Everton piled on the pressure after that with Duncan Ferguson in particular causing the Spurs defence some concern. The big Scot went close on several occasions while Scott Gemmill and Weir also threatened the Spurs goalmouth. However, Spurs themselves did not hold back and new signing Gus Poyet set up Iversen beautifully but the Norweigan could only send his shot wide of the far post. Niclas Alexanderssonm then hit the woodwork while Kevin Campbell somehow managed to get in the way of a powerful header from Alan Stubbs.
However, it was the off-the-ball antics that captured the crowd's interest as much as the football on show and referee David Elleray had his work cut out for him to keep control. Late in the first-half, Ferguson went close once again but his header hit Doherty in the face and was booted out of the area. Ferguson them combined with Kevin Campbell but his shot was deflected wide by the Irishman once again.
Everton suffered a major blow when Gravesen was carried off after being caught on the side of the shin by a high tackle from Mauricio Taricco and David Unsworth came on in his place.
Things went from bad to worse for the Merseysiders when Spurs took the lead just a minute before half-time. Anderton made a wonderful run through the middle of the park, combined with Sheringham and the ball fell to Iversen whose shot was blocked by Gerrard but Anderton was on hand to follow up with a tap-in. Just seconds before the break, Alexandersson fired home a great effort from a left-wing cross only for referee David Elleray to rule it out because he had already whistled for a foul by Campbell seconds earlier.
After the break both sides continued to carve out chances for themselves while Ferguson and Weir were both shown yellow cards by Elleray, who was now being booed by the crowd. However, the main talking point of the game came in the 62nd minute when Doherty was judged by Elleray to have taken down Campbell in the box and the referee sent him off and awarded the home side a penalty. So incensed were the Spurs players with the decision that both Sheringham and Sullivan were booked for their protests before Ferguson drove home the spot-kick.
Although Hoddle and his team could not believe their bad luck, worse was to come just minutes later when Poyet was dismissed for a reckless lunge at Steve Watson. Despite having a two-man advantage for almost half-an-hour, Everton could not manage to break down the Spurs defence. As time went on, Everton's efforts became more desperate while Spurs went all out to defend the draw, playing only one up front and two in midfield. Somehow they managed to hold on against all the odds despite Everton's attempt to find the winner.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
