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After a poor performance away at Manchester United last time out and still sitting dangerously close to the bottom 3 in 17th place, with a tough run of fixtures to come, Everton needed 3 points against Fulham on Saturday.

Fulham themselves had not won in the league since late February and looked to be content with being safe in 10th place in the league, retaining their Premier League status for another season.

Surely, one side needed the points more than the other.

However, when the line-ups were released before kick-off, many Evertonian were bemused with some the selection Sean Dyches had made, namely the inclusion of Neal Maupay and Vitalii Mykolenko. Tensions were immediately heightened.

FIRST HALF

Everton started the game terribly slow. There seemed to be no cohesion between the players, who were routinely losing possession cheaply and struggling to get a grip of Fulham.

Fulham looked comfortable in the early stages, comfortably dealing with the many long balls lumped up towards Neal Maupay and keeping the ball well.

The away side had joy in the wide areas through the likes of Willian and Wilson. The first goal of the game would come from these wide areas, when in the 22nd minute Harry Wilson brushed easily past Vitalii Mykolenko and rifled a shot against the post, Fulham midfielder Harrison Reed was quickest to react and swept the rebound past Jordan Pickford.

Everton looked completely disoriented after the goal, however against the run of play the next big chance would fall to Neal Maupay with a chance inside the 6-yard box that he headed directly at Fulham keeper Leno, James Tarkowski then blazed the rebound over the bar.

Everton hung in the game without looking threatening, until from no-where is the 35th minute Dwight McNeil turned excellently with the ball, riding a few challenges before burying his shot into the bottom right corner.

The goal seemed to bring Goodison Park back to life, Everton took control of the game for the remainder of the half, with McNeil looking bright, often turning on the ball and driving his side forward.

Fulham’s players seemed intimidated by the switch in momentum, Marco Silva’s side looked there for the taking.

HALF TIME

After a slow start to the game and going behind quite early, Everton looked to be in the ascendency toward the end of the first half.

The crowd were back behind the team and many hoped to see Ellis Simms introduced for the second half in a bid to go and beat a Fulham side that looked there for the taking.

SECOND HALF

The second half took a while to get going. The Everton players were on the pitch waiting for the Fulham team to return for what seemed like 5 minutes, when the Fulham men eventually took the pitch, referee Anthony Taylor of course allowed them even more time to warm up…

Everton again looked to have all the momentum at the start of the second half, spurred on by the Goodison crowd.

After a night passing exchange with McNeil, Neal Maupay found himself 1 on 1 with Leno but it was a tame attempt to chip the ball over Fulham’s keeper that saw Maupay miss his second big chance of the game.

Soon after Maupay failed to convert, Fulham attacked well down the right flank and swung a ball into the back post that Willian knocked down nicely for Harry Wilson to sweep home to put Fulham back in front in the 51st minute.

After their second goal, Fulham regained their composure, keeping the ball well and negating almost all of Everton’s threat.

The trend continued and in the 68th minute Fulham’s striker Dan James plucked down a long ball over the top and bent it past Pickford to seal the points for Fulham.

Goodison Park was completely dejected, after trying their hardest to push the team on at 1-1, they had instead seen their team concede another 2 goals to a side that never looked particularly interested in battling for the win.

Sean Dyche seemed to take an age until eventually deciding to bring on young striker Ellis Simms for Neal Maupay, a substitution the crowd seemed to call for since half-time.

Although it all seemed a little too late for the Toffee’s. Fulham fished the game comfortably as Everton posed little to no threat after the 70th minute.

FINAL WHISTLE

From start to finish the game turned out to be a horror show for the Blues.

After a strange team selection, many Everton fans went into the game a lot less confident than they would have been if the likes of Ellis Simms and Nathan Patterson were on the team sheet.

Sean Dyche cannot be blamed for the poor squad he has walked into; however, many Blues will have gripes with how he chose to utilise the players he does have on Saturday afternoon.

After a terrible start, a brief stint of hope, before an even worse finish, Everton have dropped crucial points in their survival bid with a tough run of fixtures to come. Fulham, a side who never once seemed to get out of second gear, comfortably beat Everton at Goodison Park, with a side that sported an Ex Everton-manager in Marco Silva and an Ex Everton-youth player in Antonne Robinson.

Perhaps this perfectly highlights how the club’s hierarchy have dramatically failed in recent seasons, a hierarchy that will have an awful lot more to answer for if Everton cannot survive this season

Mathew Fallon